The Orange Spotlight

Jason Fisk Trapped Within Myself (Brown Bottle Press, July 2009)

"I'm trapped within myself between anger and loneliness"

Perhaps this wasn't the best chap to pull out on Father's Day, but the latest from Chicago's Jason Fisk is complex effort both in presentation and content. At its core this is battle between writer and muse, story and storyteller, as Fisk tells the story Walter Stoke. Walter has lived a life filled struggles and violence, and has had to fight to make it this far. He meets with the writer in a library to tell his life's story. Hearing these stories makes the writer question his own life's story, but still manages to explain the essence of Walter's story. As a father I can't help wonder how a life ends up this way and what role did parenting (or lack thereof) play in this journey. Walter does reference his father and the conflicts that you hear of far too often.

Fisk tells this story in at least four different ways, and that only adds to the engagement in this journey. Included in this chap is a disk with music by Tucson's Jeremy Michael Cashman with lyrics by Fisk, but there are also poems, short pieces of fiction, a letter, and more. It truly is the invention of a life broken down into pieces and then told through a variety of forms.

This chap will be released next month by Brown Bottle Press with a release show in Tucson on July 15th. The entire package is only $5 and you can order a copy here.