This Side of Reality

In 2020, author Gary Floyd published Liberté: The Days of Rage. He labeled it "the little book with big ideas." The book hinted at existential questions that were hidden in plain sight. They soon grew into fruition in Washington, European capitals, and eventually the world over. Four years later, after a sojourn into a devastating pandemic and a riot/insurrection further undermined America's unity, This Side of Reality picks up where Liberté left off. The book asks troubling questions about the level of representation Americans and, by extension, Western allies enjoy. It questions whether anything other than preapproved narratives are allowed—something that Orwell wrestled with 80 years ago. The chapters in Floyd's earlier works were limited to a thousand words, a common criterion for flash fiction. This Side of Reality doesn't strictly adhere to this, but Floyd, always the iconoclast, still packs a wallop in his condensed pieces of contemporary prose. They make for short, thought-provoking morsels that can be consumed in several one- or two-story sittings, or devoured in their entirety all at once. Like a modern-day Tiresias, it's a compelling mélange of prose, nonfiction, and essays that reads like a clarion call that will inspire readers toward a more sustainable future.