What would you write if no one knew who you were?
That’s the concept behind THE SECRET SOCIETY OF DEMOLITION WRITERS, the Marc Parent-edited anthology of a dozen stories, all contributed anonymously by name authors. The names are there – they include THE PERFECT STORM’s Sebastian Junger, THE LOVELY BONES’ Alice Sebold and, um, Rosie O’Donnell – you just don’t know who wrote what, with the idea being that the secrecy would allow them to exorcise some demons on paper. With that, I’d expect a more literate version of Harlan Ellison’s classic DANGEROUS VISIONS, but unfortunately, maybe half of the writers fully take advantage of having their identity hidden.
These include stories of a college girl’s affair with a Hispanic janitor, a coffee shop employee who falls for a girl with a literal stone heart and a woman who donates her ovaries for cash. Even with the stories that fall flat (Rosie’s has to be one of them, right?), the book is worth it just for “The Safe Man,” a quasi-mystery about a safecracker-for-hire on a job that has haunting consequences. I’m guessing it was penned by Michael Connelly. Just a hunch.
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