Escape Pod included this little gem of a story by Joanne Mirriam in late October. Since I only recently started listening to podcasts again, I got to it in late December, and am blogging about it now because last week was the week from hell. It’s read by author Rachel Swirsky, who was okay as a narrator.
Painter Sarah takes in an alien who she calls Spider on what amounts to an exchange program. She teaches him how to paint like a human. A lot of the human-alien interaction is standard movie exchange student fare. Sarah is a little disconnected from the world after a bad marriage. Spider needs to learn to see like humans, not a camera. But the two develop a bond.
I thought Sarah was a likable character. She captures the distress of an amicable
parting pretty well. Despite how often these semi-amicable partings happen, I don’t see much fiction or movies even that involves such breakups. The supposed afterward, sure. So it’s nice to see that as part of the story. Spider doesn’t have much personality of his own, but he serves as a foil for Sarah to reflect on her own situation. I did feel like the interaction between Sarah and Spider and painting could have been more substantial though. Something just felt like it was missing there. But maybe that’s because I’m not an artist.
Title: Little Ambushes
Author: Joanne Mirriam
Narrator: Rachel Swirsky
Publisher: Escape Pod
Format: MP3 podcast download
Length: 21 minutes
