He Always Still Tastes Like Dynamite

Fiction. Flash Fiction. HE ALWAYS STILL TASTES LIKE DYNAMITE is a flash-fictional evisceration of toxic masculinity, a difficult yet tender exploration of the implicit and explicit violences men do to those they are afraid to love, those they pretend to hate, and those hearts, minds, and bodies they nervously call their own. In stories set amidst the sagebrush and clay of drive-through territories of the contemporary intermountain West, Trevor Dodge writes honestly and forcefully about characters trapped inside the cartoon performances intoned from having watched John Wayne movies, listened to Toby Keith albums, and suffered George W. Bush's America.

Here language dances between the highly abstract and grittily realistic, between the structurally provocative as well as the emotionally stark. Dodge's latest short story collection delivers scenes of domestic realism in an array of inventive, energetic, and poignant prose styles that invite readers to both literally and figuratively read between the lines.

You know those postage stamps with the big pink heart on them? This is what Trevor Dodge asks us to remember in this collection. This book is that stamp. What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding tipped at strange angles? Nothing, Dodge tells us with conviction. Nothing at all.--Rafael Alvarez