Unquenchable Fire

It’s uncomfortable to be chosen for Great Things. A lot of fantasists admit that, but Pollack’s Jennie Mazdan shows us just how uncomfortable it can be. This is suburban fantasy, reminiscent of Philip K. Dick’s suburban SF, and the protagonist is a nice suburban middle-class person who, in a recognizable America informed with rational, non-Christian divine powers, copes with supernatural imposition on her life. Perfectly balancing the anchoring familiar mundanities against her brilliant, fascinating Living World—surly bureaucrats at the National Oneiric Registration Agency, tourists photographing the Founder’s Urinal shrine in Poughkeepsie—Pollack tells Jennie and Valerie’s story of transformation, acceptance and triumph. Potently stocked with archetypes, yet down-to-earth and even funny, this is great fiction and great fantasy.