Hyperext Fiction Review by Angelo Suarez
What Fits by Adrienne Eisen is only one of 12 pieces of hypertext fiction found in the Reading Room
section of www.eastgate.com. Which isn't to mislead you: By using "piece of hypertext fiction" you
might think it's a short story. Actually, it's quite a stylish novella.
Which is to say that hypertext fiction has been thriving enough to venture into literature's lengthier
enterprises, like this extended prose form. However, the danger is convolution-links looping into
labyrinthine modules of text and windows-which What Fits successfully avoids. The narrative, though
fragmentary, is still very much reader-friendly. Or in this case, user-friendly what with its clear set of
choice-links kept to a manageable average of two at a time within a single window.
Not to mention that the narrative is also formidable. The tone is light and the language conversational,
utilizing the occasional cuss word for both effect and comfort-definitely a turn-on for the average
Net-surfer whose reading staples rarely include Joycean stream-of-consciousness materials. The novella is
narrated by its central character, a woman in her mid-20s having trouble with both her Web-based career and
her boyfriend Tano who happens to be a self-proclaimed "video artist."
The highly urban and Western setting calls for the next most natural thing that comes after such a dysfunctional
set-up: psychiatric help. Perhaps that explains the pseudo-confessional, ranting quality: the narration comes in
fragments a la psychiatric sessions, thus constellating into a well-wrought pastiche that relaxes, humors, and
ultimately entertains. Only, as the reader, you somehow transform into the shrink. No hardcore, hard-splitting
metaphysics here: just good, clean fun.
At least well-written fun. Well-written enough to be literary. Eisen's eye for detail is astonishing at times, and
always evocative and tender: a sweatshirt on a barren floor, plants on the balcony, a chair whose cushion has been
warmed by a previous sitter, et cetera. Even the little tidbits about Madlyn, Tano's ex-girlfriend, are rich in terms of
grace and texture, adding realistic atmosphere that deepens the tale's human dimensions in the minutest of passages,
like so:
The first photo is Madlyn. He says, "These are photos I took while I was with Madlyn." Then he tells me, "This one
is from when she was a hair model." He points to the next photo. "She couldn't wear a bra with the dress she was
wearing, and she was really uncomfortable with her breasts flopping around."
Readers, however, who tend to search for philosophical insight or some grand, heightened new perception of reality
will be disappointed. As a pastiche, the narrative is characterized mainly by a lack of depth that pervades throughout
the story. The issues tackled herein are of the ordinary, banal, and mundane-trivial, perhaps, for some people who think
there are better things to think about. But what else is there that can be as universal as love? Ultimately, What Fits, no
matter how novel, complex or modern (post-modern?) the medium, is essentially a love story. To be more specific, a love
story gone awry. And who in the world cannot connect with that?
Perhaps it is this appeal that makes this novella such a worthwhile read: charm. Sometimes, hardcore literati forget
the importance of this little virtue. After all, who would want to read a thousand-page long treatise on life, God, and the
human condition if it doesn't even begin to charm the reader, much less compel him or her to finish it?
