The Review of Contemporary Fiction

We Can Report Them by Michael Brodsky
Alan Tinkler

Michael Brodsky. We Can Report Them. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999. 356 pp. Paper: $16.95.

In his tenth work of fiction, Michael Brodsky reveals why he continues to be an experimental writer of interest. Unlike an earlier piece, ***: A Novel, which was somewhat unintelligible, We Can Report Them provides the necessary narrative structure to support Brodsky’s stylistic maneuvers.

Bert, a director of TV commercials who recognizes the power of simulacra, believes the public is wholly susceptible to the mystique surrounding serial killers, and he takes advantage of this vulnerability: “So, by cutting her up and putting her back together again—badly—the Serial Killer alerts us to the precariousness of our own selfhood.” While the novel explores the extremes of advertising, it also renders the tenuous balance that maintains relationships. Bert’s mother-in-law, Joyce, losing a battle with cancer, becomes the glue that holds together Bert’s marriage. So, as the serial killer cuts up his victim in order to put her together again, Joyce’s mutilation allows Bert and his wife to regain their standing.

The stylistic flourishes represent both the strength and weakness of the novel. At their best, they inform the text by providing a narrative layering; at their worst, they are superfluous and showy: “Turning back (after giving the situation such as it was what he considered to be enough time to transform itself into its exact opposite, whatever that might be), Bert saw, first, that Joyce was, alas, still very much alive if not quite kicking and, second, that amid all the postoperative well-wishing (nosocomial PR cum BS) she was making a point of maintaining a shrewdly provoking look, one of an almost-smiling, contemptuous skepticism which was infinitely beyond the solicitation not only of their chitchat but even of her own suffering. . . .”

While the stylistic excesses force the reader into a peculiarly tenacious reading zone, We Can Report Them is finally agreeable as it is a novel that resonates. [Alan Tinkler]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction We Can Report Them by Michael Brodsky Alan Tinkler Michael Brodsky. We Can Report Them. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999. 356 pp. Paper: $16.95. In his tenth work of fiction, Michael Brodsky reveals why he continues to be an experimental writer of interest. Unlike an earlier piece, **: A Novel, which was somewhat unintelligible, We Can Report Them* provides the necessary narrative structure to support Brodsky’s stylistic maneuvers. Bert, a director of TV commercials who recognizes the power of simulacra, believes the public is wholly susceptible to the mystique surrounding serial killers, and he takes advantage of this vulnerability: “So, by cutting her up and putting her back together again—badly—the Serial Killer alerts us to the precariousness of our own selfhood.” While the novel explores the extremes of advertising, it also renders the tenuous balance that maintains relationships. Bert’s mother-in-law, Joyce, losing a battle with cancer, becomes the glue that holds together Bert’s marriage. So, as the serial killer cuts up his victim in order to put her together again, Joyce’s mutilation allows Bert and his wife to regain their standing. The stylistic flourishes represent both the strength and weakness of the novel. At their best, they inform the text by providing a narrative layering; at their worst, they are superfluous and showy: “Turning back (after giving the situation such as it was what he considered to be enough time to transform itself into its exact opposite, whatever that might be), Bert saw, first, that Joyce was, alas, still very much alive if not quite kicking and, second, that amid all the postoperative well-wishing (nosocomial PR cum BS) she was making a point of maintaining a shrewdly provoking look, one of an almost-smiling, contemptuous skepticism which was infinitely beyond the solicitation not only of their chitchat but even of her own suffering. . . .” While the stylistic excesses force the reader into a peculiarly tenacious reading zone, We Can Report Them is finally agreeable as it is a novel that resonates. [Alan Tinkler]

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