Sitting in a bar with fictionist Eileen Tabios

Writer Eileen Tabios’ latest flash fiction collection, Getting in One, comprises 12 Pulp Fiction-y stories. CONTRIBUTED

Writer Eileen Tabios’ latest flash fiction collection, Getting in One, comprises 12 Pulp Fiction-y stories, with less gore and sans John Travolta, and they all take place where you will likely find all types of people – in a bar.

When you step inside a bar, do you prefer to be alone? Or do you choose to share your experience with familiar faces? With strangers who never bother to ask your name? A bar is a cinematic staple; at least in Hollywood films. Before the pandemic, I frequented some bars in the Sukhumvit area in Bangkok with a friend. Those loud bars where you never drink alone, or leave alone. You encountered people of all races, nationalities, and backgrounds—some with mysterious pasts – CIA operatives, and just ordinary folks chilling out and destined to return to their regular lives once they leave. My British friend says it’s a kind of voyeurism whenever I start a conversation about the people around us.

Well, I’m a writer and researcher, like Eileen Tabios, a former Wall Street banker, economist, and analyst who has boundless curiosity and imagination. Her poems, stories, and novels cut across genres, reflecting her diverse interests. While some may not agree with her politics, Eileen is Eileen — love her or hate her. Personally, I have mixed feelings about her work. I love their goriness, eroticism, simplicity, and elegance, but I also hate how her characters can become unlikable just as I’m starting to like them.

A rather slim book, you can finish it faster than you can down your bourbon. But don’t be fooled. Tabios’ characters can leave you more curious than when you first meet them.

Knowing her, the patrons of One may have already appeared, or will appear in the Eileen-verse, a universe created by Tabios where all the inhabitants are patrons of One.

Each story is complemented by artwork by harry k stammer (in small caps, like bell hooks). Browsing through One, I went back to the first story again, trying to piece together the stories and the artwork, realizing that there was a puzzle that the reader must understand to truly appreciate the book.

One is not for the faint-hearted or those seeking validation or mere entertainment. It may be our stories, written by one of those patrons quietly sipping vodka in a corner, seemingly conversing with a ghost while mouthing a line from the ‘80s song, “I’ll be a savior to you, for the rest of my life, Oh, oh the biggest part of me.”

I haven’t been to a bar since the pandemic, and I haven’t tasted anything alcoholic since then, so Getting in One is an experience that reminds me of my life before the pandemic. I might visit a bar one of these days.

Published by Sandy Press, Getting in One will be available at your nearest bar, I mean, at Amazon on September 30. It will cost you $15, but I promise, you won’t be alone.

Watch out for this space: https://www.sandy-press.com/blog/getting-to-one-flash-fictions-by-eileen-r-tabios-art-by-harry-k-stammer-soon-to-be-published-in-mid-october-2023/