Half an Arc & Artifacts & Then the Other Half


Fiction - Short Story/Novela
115 Pages
Reviewed on 06/09/2022
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Author Biography

Dan Tremaglio is the author of Half an Arc & Artifacts & Then the Other Half (Mint Hill Books/Main Street Rag), a finalist for the 2022 Indie Book Award for the Novella. His stories have appeared in numerous publications, including F(r)iction, Gravel, Literary Orphans, and Flash Fiction Magazine, and twice been named a finalist for the Calvino Prize. He lives in Seattle where he teaches creative writing and literature at Bellevue College and is a senior editor for the journal Belletrist.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jennie More for Readers' Favorite

Half an Arc & Artifacts & Then the Other Half by Dan Tremaglio is the story of a man named Z who receives a visit from his twin sister for four days. Her visit comes after their mother's death and amidst the recent death of a sculptor and close friend, Dan. On the second day of her visit, Z is supposed to attend Dan's funeral with his wife Claire, eating further into his sister's time with him. The story is set during major extremes, death and life, success and failure, and past and future. As Z is summoned to help Dan's daughter clear out her father's storage facility, Z explores and finds himself lost in the artifacts and junk surrounding him, but he seems to find the in-betweens of these extremes, the moments in the present. The poems and short stories that follow explore these themes.

Half an Arc & Artifacts & Then the Other Half by Dan Tremaglio is an enlightening narrative about the meaning of the past and the future and the importance of living in the moment. Ultimately, all we have is what we can touch, see, and experience now. The present is the most alive you will ever be. Tremaglio ponders how much we live in the past and the future and so little in the present. Dan was a famous sculptor, with a warehouse filled with things he left behind, but Z's most treasured memory of Dan was a laugh they shared about a whale they watched on TV. Half an Arc & Artifacts & Then the Other Half is a well-written, engaging, and timeless story. I found it incredibly meaningful and entertaining.