Characters on the Loose

In Janet Kauffman’s stunning collection, she boldly sets her characters on the loose. There is Baku in Battle Creek with his immigrant support group that includes lifelong American citizens, and a self-described “alien girl” who gets more than she bargained for when she decides that the kisses of Gregorio Wine would be as good as any. Kauffman’s exuberant imagination is even able to bring us Emily Dickinson riding a bicycle through today’s world.Yet perhaps the most remarkable characters of all in this collection are the letters A to Z, who tangle together in an astounding erotic alphabet that forms a unique centerpiece to the collection.

Throughout Characters on the Loose, Kauffman amazes with her brilliant and daring prose. She has said, “Maybe because I’m farming less, I think I’m farming language more.” In this collection, language, like ground, occupies physical space. For Kauffman, this is in many ways a feminist claiming of territory. Words stake out and define the territory.