Strange Horizons, September 5, 2011

“The Fountain and the Shoe Store” by Paul Steven Marino

Reviewed by Richard E.D. Jones

Every once in a while, I’m very, very glad I took this job reviewing stories. There’s no money to speak of, but every once in a while, you get to read a story that makes up for just about everything. Every once in a while, you read a story that leaves you befuddled in a warm mixture of feeling satisfaction, wonder and joy,  along with a tinge of the bittersweet.

“The Fountain and the Shoe Store” by Paul Steven Marino is one of those stories that comes along every once in a while. Before I get into the nuts and bolts of the thing, let’s get one thing straight. You can read this story for free on Strange Horizons, but this is a story you should want to pay for. This is a darn good story.

The story is told from the point of view of an unnamed architect. But this is no ordinary architect. He’s someone who builds waterups, like a waterfall, but where the water flows up. He builds the impossible and then calls it a normal day at work.

The problem, as we eventually find out, is that our architect once built an amusement park based on the end of the world. When a park is built by someone who routinely does the impossible, the end of the world becomes more than a theme. And can do some real damage to real people, even real little boys.

The architect is tired of building the impossible and has decided that he’s going to build one last thing:  a shoe store. There is a reason it’s a shoe store, but finding that out is one of the great joys of this story. Along the way, we get to learn the story of the architect’s last project, a doorway that reaches into the core of your being and finds the one thing that will make you most perfectly happy. And then gives it to you. For a little over an hour at a time.

Told in the first-person, this story is written in a lovely voice, both down home and erudite at the same time. The story flows through time, back and forth, as the plot weaves around, not so much action, but motivation and redemption. And the impossibility of redemption.

Of course, our architect is someone who specializes in the impossible.

There’s nothing impossible about enjoying this story. Go. Now. Read this story and have a good time. Then thank the writer and Strange Horizons. Really. It’s that good.