Rosanne Rabinowitz is the featured author, with two stories and an interview. ‘Return of the Pikart Posse’ follows a medieval historian, Evelyn, who is visiting the Czech Republic. Her special field of interest is the Pikarts or Adamites, a radical faction in the Hussite Revolution in 15th century Bohemia. The political beliefs of this movement were very modern, challenging sexual and class conventions, but they were put down and burned to death. For Evelyn, the Pikart past can in some ways only be imagined. She is particularly interested in a woman called Maria, a leader of the Pikarts. Maria appears in the narrative, not just through Evelyn’s imagination, but through the increasing interweaving of past and present which takes on a supernatural element. Modern politics also thread through this story in the form of a man Evelyn meets who has been involved in anti-globalisation protests. ‘Return of the Pikart Posse’ reads more like a novel than a longer short story. Casting an atmospheric spell, it has the depth of a novel, a kind of widescreen narrative, and the reader is drawn in very quickly. Rabinowitz says in her accompanying interview that her latest project is a novel about a woman leader of the Adamites, so perhaps ‘Return of the Pikart Posse’ is a part of that book.

’The Colour of Water’ is the second story from Rabinowitz in this issue of ‘Midnight Street’. A young woman, Sarah, finds a baby in the woods. This child’s skin is near transparent, and reminds Sarah of her own strange colouring and that of a girl she once met years before. The implication is that neither the girl nor the baby belong to this world, and that Sarah doesn’t either. This story is more tightly written than the first, though it doesn’t have quite as strong an atmosphere. Midnight Street editor Trevor Denyer’s interview with Rabinowitz is very interesting, and addresses subjects like the problem of being too genre for the literary crowd, and too literary for genre people; the restricting nature of book categorisation; prejudice against women writers and the dominance of male writers in slipstream; and the importance of character and plot, and whether characterisation is more important.

’Machine of a Religious Man’ by Ralph Robert Moore is one of the best pieces of writing in this issue, and certainly one of the longest. It follows three men on what seems like a violent quest as they track down a Native American chief on a reservation. As one of the men reveals to the chief, a terrible series of tragedies has beset a local man, and they want to do something about it. For that, they need the Chief’s herd of cattle, and they’re prepared to threaten him if he doesn’t go along with it. The story is gripping, pulling the reader along, and the ending is memorable.

Gary McMahon’s ‘Estate of the Nation’ sees an insurance salesman venture into a rundown estate where he gets the come on from a woman who clearly disgusts him. Since he’s an arrogant snob, he also gets his comeuppance. The only problem with this story is that the main character has few redeeming features which possibly interferes with narrative tension. The reader cares less about what happens to the man, unless it’s to hope he meets some nasty fate.

“The October Girls” by Scott Nicholson is a well-written and nicely understated ghost story about a young girl with an imaginary friend. Set against an abusive home life in a trailer park, the narrative is character-driven, and does not rely on any cheap tricks. “Lie-Down Johnny” by Andrew Roberts is also worth reading. “The Mad Hitchcock Escape” by Ronald Jones offers a grandmother with Alzheimer’s who believes that she is married to Alfred Hitchcock. There’s more to this story, in the form of a relationship that is breaking down, but the story’s attention shifts from the narrator’s disintegrating relationship to his grandmother, and it’s in the scenes between grandson and grandmother that this story is at its best. There are other stories in issue 4 of Midnight Street, from Jane Fell, Paul Edwards, and Lauren Halkon, and two poems from Jill Morris. There’s an article on “Danger Man” and “The Prisoner”, and an interview with author Eric S Brown. The magazine is A4 in size, has a colour cover, and comes with about 50 pages of text and internal artwork. "Midnight Street" offers the reader a nice mix of stories and though the writers in issue 4 come from both sides of the Atlantic, the magazine is based in the UK.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.