The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Circulation, by Tim Horvath
Reviewed by Sean O’Connell

sunnyoutside, 2008. 68 pp. Paper: $10.00.

Tim Horvath uses his novella, Circulation, as an index of intriguing hypotheticals; through addressing a dying father, himself an aspiring writer, he writes around two literary projects: one extant, the other perpetually in process. The first is a treatise on the poetics of caves. This book, presented as too arduous to read, turns out to be well worth reading about. The second, The Atlas of the Voyages of Things, exists only in scribbled note form, and highlights the more dissonant aspects of the character of the father—dying and in need of redemption both as a writer and a parent. Since the main character, Jay, is head of circulation at a local library, he is responsible for constructing stories about where his father’s single published book has gone or might go. The dying man listens silently as his son constructs the possible journey of his father’s legacy, and, using this framework, Horvath manages to pack a handful of great potential stories into one text without needing to write all the way through any of them. Perfect for an afternoon of quick rumination.