Dyke (geology)
by Sabrina Imbler
Review by Nicholas Alexander Hayes
The morning after finishing Sabrina Imbler’s Dyke (geology), I texted a long-time writing partner to say that if I was still teaching Queer Lit I would add this to the reading list. The desire to include this was not because it echoed the great themes of works like Hall’s The Well of Loneliness or Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Sure Imbler’s relationship turmoil might have certain resonances with these more venerated classics, but so many other tedious and banal works share these resonances.
More engaging is the way Imbler weaves narrative and geology. It transcends simple symbolism and pushes the connections between deep understandings of magma flow and social dynamics. The fragmentary nature of the texts asks the reader to mind not only the small sections which have been compellingly written but also the vibrations that create unity from the disparate pieces. Readers must glide and leap between passage guiding and orienting themselves like a bird by magnetic vibrations.
Fragmentary writing can feel unbalanced or random when unskillfully arranged. However, Imbler has a masterful touch in her arrangement. The tectonic pressures between narrative and scientific description queers the environment, queers the material of the world. Geology, history, personal narrative shift into each other. These shifts are smoother than the relationships described in the narratives. This slender book contains a dynamic drive with currents that generate an energetic field that rewards the readers at each stage.
Dyke (geology)
Sabrina Imbler
Black Lawrence Press
ISBN: 978-1625577160
About the Author
Nicholas Alexander Hayes (Review Editor) lives in Chicago, IL. He is the author of NIV: 39 & 27 and Between. He has an MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he is currently completing an MA in Sociology at DePaul University. He writes about a wide range of topics including ’60s gay pulp fiction, the Miss Rheingold beauty competition, depictions of masculinity on Tumblr, and whatever piece of pop cultural detritus catches his eye at the moment.