Magical Realism & Whales
No one knows how the whale arrived in the town’s square, but the odor of rotting flesh proves to be a tremendous nuisance. It isn’t until onlookers start hearing moaning and groaning that John Lancaster is pulled from the fish’s belly. The would-be Jonah is taken to a hospital but promptly leaves and returns to the whale.
Suffering from selective amnesia, he wonders how he wound up inside a whale. And how the behemoth arrive in the center of the town. There are few clues until…
“Swallowed” was published in a fledgeling literary journal in 2013. The journal is defunct, but the novel based on the short story followed later that year.
photo: Todd Cravens
