Reverse Negative — Nathan Leslie

A reverse negative is a photographic image in negative light, which also appears literally reversed. In a sense, it may be a double removal from the "reality" of the photograph. In the title piece of Reverse Negative, the female narrator says, "This is a shadow of what most people normally see. This is the opposite, the reverse negative." The story portrays the mundane existence of a couple who have recently learned about the death of their son, and their difficult time trying to find out what happened somewhere in Hungary. Within only 179 pages, Leslie offers the short fiction reading world fifty-eight stories arranged alphabetically. Short fiction, also called "sudden" and "micro" fiction, is generally understood to be fiction between 1,000 and 2,000 words. The power of a short, intense, well-wrought piece can have at least the same power of a longer story and at the same time the lingering metaphoric and lyrical possibilities of a poem. More obviously, a work of short fiction is a quick read. One can analyze point of view, plot and other narrative techniques in a much more compact and realized space-not to mention that the leading practitioners of the form seem more willing to experiment than one might find in longer fiction, and Reverse Negative is no exception.