There are a number of ways for an author to assemble a collection of short fiction. Some just repurpose whatever stories they’ve published in various literary magazines and other outlets and put them together. Others develop their stories around some sort of shared thematic or stylistic tendencies. Still others use go the “novel in stories” route, using their tales as chapters of a connected whole. And some follow more than one of these tenets.

Mark Mayer’s collection “Aerialists” falls into the latter category. This collection of nine stories draws from Mayer’s previous work – three of these stories have appeared elsewhere. His stories are rich in characterization, very internal and bleakly funny. And as his framing device – his connective tissue, as it were – he uses the notion of the circus.

Now, that’s not to say that these stories are all about the circus. In fact, none of them are. Their names are derived from circus figures, from the opening “Strongwoman” to the titular tale to the collection’s closer “The Ringmaster.” But while these names aren’t to be taken as literal representations of circus tradition, they are meant to evoke the unique feeling inspired by the circus, that mélange of joy and fear and unsettling otherness that you can’t get anywhere else.

Another common bond that these stories share – a very important one – is that they are excellent.

“Strongwoman” sees a boy dealing with the aftermath of the divorce of his parents and the entry into his mother’s life of a new friend, a competitive bodybuilder who is unlike any woman our narrator has ever encountered. Title story “Aerialists” features a young man struggling to come to terms with growing up; his work assisting a blind neighbor leads to the idea that intimate expression can take many forms. And “The Evasive Magnolio” is a heartbreaking story of a peach farmer’s discovery that his longtime elephant companion has died. When he seeks out help with the burial, he learns that the nearby town has also faded away, leaving him with just one horrible option.

Perhaps the weirdest story of the bunch is “Twin,” where a teenaged girl recounts her former best friendship with another girl, a once-conjoined twin who was left locked-in by the separation process. The two share a psychic bond, but even the most special of childhood friendships can eventually fade away. “The Wilderness Act” is the story of a man’s misguided quest for love as he desperately seeks someone with whom to genuinely connect. But even when he finds someone – through questionable pretenses – he can’t fully realize the desired dynamic. In “The April Thief,” a boy slowly comes to the realization that sometimes, what our parents tell us isn’t the truth – or at least not the whole truth. And in his yearning for a reckoning, he winds up upending the rest of his life, too.

“Solidarity Forever” offers the story of a brilliant, damaged man on a Quixotic quest to prove the merits of communism through math. His efforts lead to him eschewing meals and lingering in the basement, much to the dismay of his wife and their young nephew who lives with them; the nephew in particular seeks solace in whatever patterns he can find in the world. “The Clown” can best be summarized by its opening line – “The clown counted his murders as he drove the new couple to the house on Rocking Horse Lane.” Really, you don’t need anything more – it’s the story of a murder clown. Last but not least, “The Ringmaster,” a touching tale of a retiree’s effort to find a good home for his massive train set, a lifelong project that he deeply wishes would somehow live on beyond him.

None of these brief summaries do these stories justice (well, the one for “The Clown” comes pretty close); each one of these pieces is thorough and thoughtful, presenting complex narratives that defy simple synopsis. Individually, they shine. Taken together, they paint an emotionally impactful picture packed with dark jokes and glimmers of hope … only the jokes can hurt and the glimmers are sometimes extinguished.

Mayer has a distinct authorial voice that permeates the work; too often, collections like this one feel too uniform in their sound. That’s far from the case here – even the stories that seems as though there might be overlap are distinct. The characters that populate these pages are challenging and flawed, driven by desire and as subject to poor decision-making as the rest of us.

“Aerialists” renders the weird mundane and the mundane weird, finding commonality in strangeness while accentuating the bizarreness of the everyday. In that way, it truly does evoke the circus – it’s three rings of the unknown reflecting the personal truths we keep buried within.

"Mark Mayer's AERIALISTS is a striking collection, full of wistful, incisive, and bittersweet stories that find the extraordinary in the mundane and reveal the wonder in the everyday. Intimate, intelligent, and unique, Mayer's writing is a thing to savor, to hold close, and to marvel at as it twists through the hearts and minds of his characters into your own."

The short story collection, THE AERIALISTS, by Mark Mayer, uses circus acts and personalities as inspiration to tell intimate tales of people struggling to figure out what they want. There are funny moments, disturbing moments, and moments that touch your heart.
Mark Mayer's short story style is unique and yet comforting at the same time. He writes very real people and tells their stories in a straight forward way so as the reader quickly understands the characters and each of the characters choices make logical sense. Each story ramps up to a climax and a reveal of sorts, and because the reader has settled into each character and story, the reveal isn't shocking, more just a satisfying end to a fascinating and complex tale of an interesting person/people. While all of the stories are memorable, my favorites were "Strongwoman" and "The Ringmaster".
THE AERIALISTS was a pleasure to read and a wonderful escape from reality, and I look forward to reading more from Mark Mayer in the future.

To enter Mark Mayer’s short story collection is like walking into a gallery of intense personalities dealing with situations they are not able to control. But they don’t know that, and that is where the tension in each story lies. Just slightly riffing on circus acts/sideshow performers, Mayer builds a world of glaring images where characters demand attention, change and understanding. Sometimes unsettling, this persistent collection creates a constant tone of loss. Nothing subtle here, recommended for those who enjoy their fiction edgy and vibrant.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this title.

"Aerialists", the debut collection of stories by Mark Mayer, has a loose theme of the circus through them, but really the stories are so varied that this connection is not deep enough to hinder the advancement of any of the collection, meaning Mayer does not use this idea to dampen the story telling in any way. The variety ranges from "Strongwoman," the story of a pre-teen boy is trying to understand what happened between his mother and father and how a new woman, a aspiring bodybuilder, is now in the house, to "The Clown" about a real estate agent with aspirations to become a serial killer dressed as a clown. Even though there is so many different ideas, characters, and themes coming from all of these stories, the tone does not change at all. Mayer presents a world that is filled with characters realizing that the world is not exactly how they perceived it and the adjustment is hard. Whether it be the story of divorce ("Strongwoman" and "The April Thief,"), loneliness ("The Wilderness Act"), mourning ("The Evasive Magnolio"), or aging and mortality ("The Ringmaster"), Mayer nails the moods and the sadness all of this brings, and I think that this is what really ties the collection together. There is an sadness in the circus, and Mayer is able to tear this sadness apart and individualize the reasons. Like any collection, I like some of these stories more than others, but as a whole, this is a great collection and I look forward to the future of Mayer's writing.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review

'I loved my mom, but sometimes I would pester her to tears. It was easy to make her sad, but she only wailed like that after she thought I was asleep.'

In this haunting collection of circus themed misfits the reader is surrounded by stories that are at once amusingly lighthearted and yet can turn painfully absorbing with deeply flawed characters coping with life’s pitfalls. My favorite is Strongwoman, where an eleven-year-old deals with coming of age while his parents split apart, his mother breaking under the weight of her sadness until along comes Klara, a ‘tremendous woman’ all muscle and brawn, to breathe life back into their home and his mother’s heart. One of the most beautiful moments in the story for me is his explanation about overhearing he was an accident. Just a small paragraph and yet it beat on the walls of my heart. Junior came to life for me, and writing believable children in short stories especially isn’t easy but Mayer has created a kid I could pick out of my own childhood.

In Aerialists two brothers discuss their time enlisted, one brother back home, his deployment finished until he hits the water for a different job but swearing he suffers from PTSD, another about to follow in his footsteps and join up while saying goodbye to his girlfriend, working for a pilot who is slowly going blind. In The Evasive Magnolio a lonesome peach farmer says goodbye to the elephant Maggy, wondering what sort of funeral could commemorate the beloved beast, left behind on unworthy land? Mayer’s writing is beautifully descriptive whether it’s about the eyes of a girl in one story ” Trinia’s eyes are green with little sunflowers” or an elephant’s ear in another, “ear like a sheet of moon.” As he dissects the gentle beast for burial he is a lonely man in a ghost town. Left with only dust from a storm, Maggy remains his only family, and he is the only person left to give her a funeral. Maple has a connection with Sasha, her special needs friend whom she bonds with through imagined conversations in her mind in the story Twin. When Maples dad gets the blues, she finds comfort with Sasha. Both grow up, but not in the same direction.

A maniacal clown (realtor) knows what the truly wealthy want, as he channels his own murderous intent in The Clown, plotting their deaths as he shows them around. A boy tries to understand his distracted mother and later her absence in April Thief, while writing a story and sharing a dog with his pal. He hopes he can he wrap his mind around why he likes his dad more, not quite understanding the adult atmosphere. The stories are strange, but there is much to discern if you’re paying attention. An original collection by a writer who likely has so much more up his sleeve in the future.

Publication Date: February 19, 2019

Bloomsbury Publishing