JONAH KRUVANT

It’s easy to give in to consumerism and technology— to lead a conventional life. But the characters in The Armor You Built, a collection of short stories of realistic fiction, dystopian satire, and science fiction, strive to discover their authentic selves. 

 

 The opening story, “FRAGMENTS OF REJUVENATION,” sets the tone for the collection. Its protagonist, Julian, a twenty-five-year-old pizza chef, moves back to the US after living in Naples. He finds his perception of reality has changed. “When I go to the supermarkets here with their endless overabundance of goods, I’m assaulted with a barrage of images and shapes.” 

 

Orlee Liebowitz undergoes a shocking physical change in “THE TRANSFORMATION.” The story begins with the first people in the world to “transform” (actually morph into their phones), from the Bronx to Tokyo to Tel Aviv, and ends with the ramifications of a society overrun with iPhoners and Androidians. 

 

 “HIS MONA LEASE"  is set in a world where musical notes are currency, tax forms are considered art, religion is considered factual, and science is based in faith. Its narrator, Philip, a struggling businessman searching for truth, surrounded by money-seeking artists, attempts to write the Great American Lease. 

 

“THE RATS" follows three twenty-somethings trying to find themselves during the Great Recession. Samantha, who begins her day on a yoga mat, is able to live purely in the moment, whereas her friends yearn for things they don’t have. Robert feels like “a rat in an experiment, his parents scientists engineering him according to how they saw the world. ” Kate will do anything for the apartment of her dreams. 

 

In “LISTENING,” set in 1960s Maine, Jonathan, a forty-year-old lumberjack, begins to question his profession when his daughter encourages him to feel the natural world in a new way.

 

In “BULL FIGHT,” fourteen-year old Carlos, in order to prove he’s not a gringo, attempts to fight a bull in front of the villagers of his small Colombian town.

 

The narrator in  “THE DOULA” sees through the profit-driven medical system and stands up to the obstetrician who nearly fails to deliver his baby son. This satire on modern society is a refreshing take on what glues us together and pulls us apart.

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