Author: George Salis

George Salis: Did you have a vision of an Aztec having a vision of an American working in a slaughterhouse who had visions? How many visions can you envision?

At over 700 pages, Rick Harsch’s The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas “is in part a story about what empire has wrought, and how over the recent two centuries the United States rose to global economic mastery and nuclear proliferate madhouse. But it is also an absurdist masterpiece and a metafictional epic rooted in American history (including the story of Hugh Glass, his journey along the Salmon River and the epic battle with Old Ephraim, a giant bear), and the impact of that history on our modern society (the movie by DiCaprio notwithstanding).”

George Salis: Your new book, An Angel of Sodom, contains a short novel and thirteen short stories. What was the thought-process behind curating this collection? How do the stories complement each other?

Upside-down lightning, a group of uncouth skydivers, resurrections, a mother’s body overtaken by a garden, aquatic telepathy, a peeling snake-priest, and more. Sea Above, Sun Below is influenced by Western myths, some Greek, some with biblical overtones, resulting in a fusion of fantastic dreams, bizarre yet beautiful nightmares, and multiple narrative threads that form a tapestry which depicts the fragility of characters teetering on the brink of madness. Within you will find flashes of immolation and mutilation, transubstantiation threaded through thematic and genealogical membranes in a literary voice composed of whispers over wails.

Continue reading “Babel and Babylon: An Interview with REYoung” →