fiction with a dark edge
On vacation, my mind inevitably turns to dark topics, as my posts from last summer prove ("The Nihilist on Vacation" parts one and two). This summer, I sit contemplating the sparkle of the pool. There is nothing quite like the color of swimming pool water. Ridiculous, since water has no color. But somehow this does,... Continue Reading →
On the cusp of returning home, the Nihilist finds herself wrung dry, cocooned as she has been for twelve days with her immediate family in a passing imitation of filial harmony. Escaping routine for a couple of weeks is like a drug—a numbing, demotivating drug. Oh, right. That's why people go on vacation. Now, as... Continue Reading →
Dead in 70 years anyway. So reads the Instagram tagline of someone I know well, like a self-referential epitaph. This person is a teenager every bit as tormented, apparently, as I was at his age. The difference is that today the world can know your torment, which is not confined between the cardboard covers of... Continue Reading →
AUDREY KALMAN 