Trackback by Zack Schuster

                Trackback indulges the music nerd’s obsession with track lengths. Every story gets its own track length and listing, a pretty clever way of announcing the size of the chapters. I like it, I compare each ‘running time’ with the page length. Zack stays true to his track length concept as well throughout the book.

                Each character has a hang up. Not one appears to have a normal life or well-adjusted way of life. The characters are afraid. They want acceptance, compassion, care, love and attention. Despite this need, they never ask for any of these things. Instead they are crippled by fear. They worry about how other see them, they want to do the right thing for others but not themselves. I enjoy all the obligations, normal fears, and even suburban life that get thrown together in these interconnected stories. 

                ‘Snapshot’ offers a positive view of a first date. There are worse first dates. I like the change between the two individuals’ perspectives. You get a sense of each one’s worries, concerns, and hopes. First dates can be funny, especially when each person has their own ideas of each attention. One wants anxiety, the other wants calm. ‘Food’ is the photographic negative of the previous story. Zack gives the reader two completely opposite experiences involving the same place. 

                ‘If Only’ sets the framework for the ‘The Piano’ and the corresponding stories about ‘The Prodigy’. These stories create a family. Everyone in this family is afraid. Big Brother worries about his future. Meanwhile, the kid has problems with other children. The kid dislikes other kids due to a clumsy nature, one he greatly exaggerates. Eventually the kid finds solace in a lonely activity by playing the piano. Mom and Dad work together to keep the children normal. Yet the story gives the impression of overly sheltered children, children who receive too much vague encouragement, not enough literal commitments of attention, a way of dealing with problems without thinking. Finally the Prodigy comes in to blow away the poor kid. 

                ‘Bonds’ begins the latter quarter of the book. In this quarter, things take a murkier approach. Characters become a wee bit more amorphous. There is quite a bit of playfulness in the narration. Zack employs a certain narrator character throughout the whole book, but this last quarter is where the narrator asserts their presence the most. Actually this section contains the most distraught and disappointed characters. Anxiousness present in the previous sections comes into full bloom. I enjoy the focus on writers and writing at the ending, it is pretty damning but a bit funny. 

                Anxiety is all over. Trackback offers an inner working of some of the characters minds’. It is interesting watching the difference between reality and their internal rationalization for their behavior. Zack creates an unresolved tension that feels familiar, that feels human. Trackback depicts life with a rare honesty.