The Museum of Future MistakesThe Museum of Future Mistakes

"In "Brother and Not-Brother," the residents of an entire city transform into perfect copies of the narrator's deceased brother; these uncanny doppelgängers spark meditations on childhood scars, grief taking root in the body, and how painful memories can bloom into joy, laughter, and love. In "The Last Dinosaurs of Portland," two anthropomorphic dinosaurs yearn for companionship and empathy while fighting for a meager existence under the weight of past traumas. In "Three-Month Autopsy," a character visits ex-lovers and returns Ziploc baggies full of their body parts, exploring infatuation, jealousy, regret, and the contours of both giving and receiving within a relationship. Through these and other fabulist and magical realist stories, James R. Gapinski considers our physical relationship with our own bodies, how we process love and loss, and fragility of identity amid moments of personal crisis."--