"A New York as seen between rapid eye movements, where all subways lead to the bowels of the unconscious."
The above pithy zinger is from the back cover of the Red Dust edition of this little book published in 1987.
Between a Dream and a Cup of Coffee - a collection of five minimalist fictions by Peter Cherches, an author where less is always more.
Grab yourself a cup of coffee and have a taste of Peter's micro quintet via direct caffeine quotes and my brief buzzes. By the way, I'll take the liberty of giving the unnamed narrator of each tale the name of Peter. Hardly original, I know, but let's remember less is more.
AT THE JAPANESE RESTAURANT
Peter joins five friends at a Japanese restaurant and everyone orders the same mixed seafood salad - shrimps, clams, octopi, squid, salmon, fish heads, sea horses.
But then it happens: Peter detects the gent to his right lacks what everyone else has: a large squid head in the center of the bowl.
Peter calls the waiter over. The waiter says, "I will correct this," and proceeds to shift food from salad to salad.
What!!! Not exactly what Peter was expecting - especially in a Japanese restaurant.
What's the sound of one minimalist squabbling?
AN UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE
A series of whacko happenings including a German soccer player bearing an uncanny resemblance to Rainer Werner Fassbinder kidnapping an attractive New York City art director of Sport magazine. He then hijacks a plane and demands more coverage of German soccer in the American media. The Rainer Werner Fassbinder lookalike orders the pilot to land the plane in the Bowery.
Peter's prime question: How do you land a hijacked airplane in the Bowery? Good question, Peter!
WORKING WITH FRANK
Peter works for Frank Perdue, proofreading recipe labels. Peter receives a new assignment: Thanksgiving morning, at 9 o'clock sharp, he must report to the big refrigerator. Turns out, Peter will be working with Frank Perdue himself.
The conversation between Peter the literary minimalist and Frank the poultry man is worth the price of a freezer full of frozen turkey-size chickens.
Peter spends the morning helping Frank haul those huge frozen birds out for pickup. Peter asks how does he grow such big birds, to which Frank answers; "It's done with a combination of genetic engineering and nuclear radiation. And the results are just scrumptious."
And that's just for starters. Frank is all about the unexpected, after all, it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.
THE TRUFFLE PIG
Peter is in for a surprise. Returning for yet again another outstanding dinner of French cooking at his friends, a couple he's known for years, there's - gulp! - a big, grotesque, twisted, gray, headless carcass in the corner of the living room.
A truffle pig, you say? And the head? Oh, on the dinner table, in a glass beaker, there's a small head that looks more like . . . well, truth be told, it looks like Peter Cherches meets H. P. Lovecraft.
BETWEEN A DREAM AND A CUP OF COFFEE
Sounds like the ultimate bad day for Peter. It all started when he buys a pair of new sneakers only to have them fall apart at the seams that very day. Then, a string of more bad luck: a woman, a perfect stranger, tells him he's her long lost son; he watches as a bank ATM chews up a woman's hand; a cashier gives him twelve nickles in change. Ah, nickles! Unacceptable!; yet again another phone call where the caller asks for Ralph (nearly 200 different callers over the past 10 years have called his number asking for Ralph). Wait a minute - who is Ralph, anyway? If all this isn't enough, more bad luck when Peter goes down to his local bodega to buy milk. Oh, good grief. Will Peter be forced to drink his coffee black?
I offer the above compressed bits as a taste test. To partake of the full five course meal, you'll have to read for yourself.
*Note - The 5 stories in Between a Dream and a Cup of Coffee also appear in Peter's Autobiography Without Words published by Pelekinesis.
American author and performance artist Peter Cherches, born 1956
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