Strawberry Man by Eric Shapiro

In Eric Shapiro’s novella, Strawberry Man, Ben Klein is trapped in the Peaks Restaurant atop one of the world’s tallest buildings. Klein, called “The Strawberry Man” by others engaged in corporate agriculture, wakes after a storm of all storms to find water lapping at the windows of the restaurant. He also discovers he is trapped with three other people, all servers from the restaurant.

As the waters continue to rise, Klein makes pointed observations to himself while watching his fellow refugees. Nothing he has to say of his fellows is good, and an excess of liquor leads him to reveal that there is not much good in himself, either. Whether forced by ego, conscience, or simply by alcohol, Klein relates a tale of his gravest past misdeed, which turns the others against him.

Strawberry Man starts off very strong. Klein’s disorganized, burning fear is crisp on the page. But Shapiro’s story loses steam as it turns from the apocalyptic horror of a world fast sinking to the self-indulgent self-examination of a doomed man. Klein’s fear of the apocalyptic scenario shrinks as he reveals his own self-loathing, and the horror of the situation retreats as the reader is faced with a quartet of people who, tainted as they are by Klein’s perceptions, he really doesn’t care about. Klein is mildly empathetic, as everyone has done things they might later reflect upon and regret, but he’s such a bastard that he’s never really likable. All the reader sees of the other characters is what Klein picks up, mostly their shortcomings.

Shapiro writes a sharp, sometimes cutting, first person narrative, but the story loses its edge under the weight of Klein’s reflections. The rising water recedes from our mind as they recede from Klein’s perceptions, and the horror of the moment turns into a decades old horror that lacks the punch of immediacy.

Publisher: Insidious Publications (July 2007)
Paperback price: $5.99