his mammoth volume—containing 17 stories previously published from 1978 to 2001 across a wide range of magazines, and billed as "The Essential Jack Dann Collection"—does indeed represent a "best-of" assortment in all but name. An affectionate foreword by John Kessel and the author's own generous introduction and afterword round out the corollary material.
"The Diamond Pit" is a retro excursion into the 1920s world of dashing aviators and mad millionaires with beautiful daughters, a blend of F. Scott Fitzgerald and pulp action centering around a "diamond big as the Ritz." The sinking of the Titanic is restaged in "Going Under" by a jaded future society where death is just another kick. Two young friends dare each other to approach the corpse of a local boy in "Voices," but discover that mortality has nebulous, permeable borders. Supernatural creatures invade a Catskills resort with comic results in "Fairy Tale." "Marilyn" charts the impossible intersection of the iconic Hollywood star with a dying grunt in Vietnam.
Judge Stephen Steiner has the misfortune of meeting a unicorn with "The Black Horn" in the unlikely precincts of Miami Beach, and his life takes an unprecedented turn. A Native American sweat lodge holds eerie revelations for a New Age dilettante in "Bad Medicine." What if you encountered a long-vanished friend filling the role of the tattooed man at a traveling carny when it passed through town? Would you expect to experience the disturbing tale told in "Tattoos"? A young man suffering in a hospital bed finds his fate intertwined with a victim of the Holocaust in "Camps." "Da Vinci Rising" focuses on the ancient dream of flight and its realization in the accomplishments of Leonardo and his young assistant, none other than Niccolo Machiavelli!
"Kaddish" examines the moral crisis of a devout but doubting Jewish man named Nathan, whose moment of existential despair leads to a literal splitting of his life. In a timeslip moment during "The Extra," a dissatisfied man acting in a film finds himself with a chance to rework his own past. "A Quiet Revolution for Death" portrays a future society where conventional attitudes to dying have been rechanneled along strange paths. "Jumping the Road" brings Rabbi Isaac ibn Chabib to the planet of Ulim, where alien Jews appear to have arisen spontaneously . Psychically linked gamblers in a future where the ultimate wager is for body parts is the premise of "Blind Shemmy." "Tea" examines the plight of a somewhat batty old woman whose only friend proves to have a sordid past. And the title story closes the collection with a parable set in Greece about devolution and personal pain.
Dann is the definitive mench
At the end of the Ron-Goulart-level-funny "Fairy Tale," Jack Dann appends a glossary of the Yiddish terms employed by the narrator, a comedian at the down-and-out resorts of a once-flourishing region now beset by bogles and beasties. In this minidictionary, itself quite humorous, we learn, if we didn't known it already, that a mench is "a real person, someone you can depend on, someone to be proud of." That definition fits the author himself to the nth decimal point. Dann's career represents the efforts of an uncompromising, deliberate fellow who treats deep themes and topics in a manner both artful and respectful. A typical Jack Dann story occupies the opposite end of the spectrum from disposable, slight fiction. Be prepared when reading his work to be outraged, engaged and touched by compassion.
Several generalizations can be drawn from this sampling of Dann's stories. He favors near-future, contemporary or historical settings. There are no space operas here, no vast-but-empty cosmic perspectives. About the farthest we stray from Earth is the planet Ulim, and even here we are grounded by the traditional character of the protagonist, an old-fashioned rabbi. Dann is meticulous in sketching his present-day settings, using mimetic vigor to sharpen the uncanny elements he introduces. His fidelity to historical accuracy is equally compelling. "Da Vinci Rising" uses its 72 pages to recreate Renaissance Italy in glorious depth. And the Jazz Age sensibilities of the characters in "The Diamond Pit" ring true as well.
Dann's utilization of his personal Judaic faith also adds a rare dimension to his fiction. Time after time, a spiritual crisis propels the action and opens up other realms of experience not accessible to those who adhere to the strictest brand of rationalism. And in the face of the century just past, marked by the biggest wars and slaughters of history, Dann unflinchingly confronts mankind's propensity for evil.
But Dann certainly does not stand outside the great SF dialogue. His "Blind Shemmy" is as clear a cyberpunk story as any, an unacknowledged prototype, in fact, considering its 1983 publication date. "Tattoos" works new twists on Bradbury's classic The Illustrated Man (1951), and "Jumping the Road" extends the explorations begun by James Blish in his A Case of Conscience (1958).
