March 31 - "The Rememberer"

“The Rememberer”
by Aimee Bender
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * (Good) Fantasy

A woman’s lover begins to devolve at an alarming rate. From man to ape to sea turtle and simpler creatures, her Ben slips away.

Bender writes some great and often fantastical fiction. However, in her stories the fantasy is always grounded firmly in reality. Sure, a man may change from human to ape, and ape to sea turtle, but the foundation of the story – the emotion – remains realistically true: the sadness in our world is a result of the lack of feeling and the reliance on thought. For a couple that believe this sentiment, Ben’s transformation comes as no surprise. The woman does what she can to keep her man as long as she can, but in the end understands his place in the world. That does not stop her from keeping her ears tuned to the news, and her phone number listed, in case of the sudden reappearance of her lover. This story makes me want to dig out that copy of Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and dive back into a world of the strange and beautiful.