The Strange Recital

The Strange Recital

By Tom Newton and Brent RobisonArtsBooksPerforming Arts
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The Strange Recital episodes

  • The Sound of Snow

    "The apartment brought her a new sense of calm. She thought of it as her cocoon. Her husband's death had now moved into her back brain and settled down."

    She is frozen, hurt by deaths of various sorts... until one becomes the door to a life change. Listen... do you hear the colors?
    38 min
  • Codex Plasmodium
    "There is no future. This is not pessimism but the borderland of science, where time is only the present tense." A man's voice deep in the night... is anybody listening but you? City streets at dawn... those other humans... apostasy, enigma. Are you as real as you think you are?
    26 min
  • Never the Same Again
    "The self-styled philosopher with whom I share this little concrete cage tells me this: a normal life is like, say, a fancy ring with jewels."   A young man ponders big questions.... Who controls the chain of events? How on earth did he end up here?
    18 min
  • Beyond the Door
    "That night at the dinner table he brought it out and set it down beside her plate. Doris stared at it, her hand to her mouth."   A bit of early PKD madness... a selfish husband, an antique clock. Where exactly does the little cuckoo go? Can he see into your soul?
    25 min
  • The Man Who Loved Solitude

    "Terrence Murphy was a carpenter, still young but with middle age bearing down on him, and the prospect did not please him." New York 100 years ago... a mysterious girl... a man's life is transformed. What does "love" really mean, anyway?

    24 min
  • Squid in Love

    "Ramona likes Bruno ’cuz he has three arms. That’s right, three." What's a mother to do? Can she protect her son from the judgement of the "normal?" Maybe he doesn't want her to try.

    19 min
  • Wasted
    "For 24 hours after his world imploded, Nate lay in a St. Vincent’s Hospital bed, alternating between moaning like a homeless lunatic over Sheila and swearing at various masochistic Attack on America marathons..."   The world looks bleak after September 11. New York is more toxic than ever. Can a man's life take a new course?
    24 min
  • The Cloisonné Pill Box
    "He has always hated that jewelry store, but something catches Marshall's eye as he passes by on his walk home from the Gray Panthers meeting...."   A man's gift to his wife marks the days, and the cycle of life continues. In this jewel-like story, perhaps birds are symbols of some ultimate freedom.
    22 min
  • Story for a Cold Night
    "Ron says to Harry, 'This guy inherits an island from some benign son-of-a-bitch.' Harry presses his palms on the cement, adjusting his butt against a piece of insulation, his daybed. He watches forms passing in the street, the dusky light slanting. 'Must be six by now.'”   Two stories in one: a cold alley, a tropical island... is either more real than the other? A death wish can be expressed in many ways.
    27 min
  • Effects and Causes
    "There was another table by a door, in another place at a different time. Along with the letters there was a newspaper. The headline glared at him: MAN KILLED IN A CROWD WITH POISONED UMBRELLA."   Can effects precede causes? Maybe, but what does that have to do with spies in London, a Zapotec witch, and a secret basement room?
    25 min

About The Strange Recital

From the publisher's feed

The Strange Recital is an audio forum for short fiction. We delight in perceptions of reality that twist and fold in unexpected ways.