The Long Drive Home

by Stan Rogal (Insomniac Press 177 pp. $ 14.99)
by Thomas Christian

One of the great things about Mystical Stew that makes it so seductively intriguing, is the mix of name-ables and unknowns tumbling together into a vat of unpredictability. Stan Rogal – possessing a touch of the plotting smorgasbordist himself – substitutes the crunchy bits and water solubles for the juxtaposed human form whose seemingly insignificant daily doings are heightened until they are brought together in one big crash of commonality.

During the course of a week in late September, this strange cast of characters – an interior designer, a donut shop manager, a creepy woman in a white BMW with child in tow, and a pair of gay hit men smuggling weapons in their golf bags – are all inexplicably linked in the kaleidoscope of coagulating multi-colored glass that is The Long Drive Home, whose eventual destination is salvation.