About a month ago, I received an arc of Midwestern Chrome by Michael Bettendorf. I knew I’d like the book because Tenebrous has a keen eye for weird books with emotional resonance. When I saw the cover, I suspected I might love it.
But honestly, I wasn’t ready to become obsessed with it.
The book is a collection of cyber-noir short stories. Now, I love short stories. They’re fun to write, and reading them gives you the mental and emotional payoff of a full story with little time commitment. That being said, I usually prefer my shorts from magazines or anthologies rather than collections. I figure if I’m reading a short, I want to take advantage of the length and mix it up. But now and then a collection comes around that just feels right as a collection — the stories strengthen each other in a magical, synergistic way. This is one of those.
Most of the stories are set in a futuristic Nebraska, where people are decked out in biotech modifications that range from pleasurable highs to various skills and “upgrades” that mostly focus on brutality and survival in a world controlled by corporations and run by black market tech dealers and crime bosses. While the stories have some overlapping characters, the common thread is the city, which is a character itself. From the Midnight Bazaar to the vending machines that will dole out anything from your next meal to a 3D printed gun, the little grimy details create a world that, though brutal, feels lived in. I spread the book out over a few weeks, reading a story every other night, and every time I curled up with it, I felt like I was stepping into a cozy cafe, the rain pouring down. I can’t explain how such dark stories felt cozy in a way that doesn’t make me sound insane, but it probably has something to do with the familiarity of the tales.
Facing Addiction Head On
Midwestern Chrome hits all the notes of the cyberpunk genre – the tech addiction, the bio-tech, the large corps controlling every aspect of your life. From the first scene of Our Bird Trills Mechanical, I felt I was stepping into a story I knew. But it’s written in a way that feels fresh – cyberpunk that feels open and honest. Bettendorf doesn’t just use mental health issues, addiction, and the driving personal desire for a better life as a fond, but actually allows his characters to explore these issues. The addiction in these stories doesn’t feel cheap, and I found myself identifying with characters I never thought I’d have anything in common with. The standout for me was Pass the Purse to the Pugilists, which follows a tech-addict boxer trying to fight “clean”. Having never thrown a punch, I found myself nodding along, whispering “that’s me.”
But even though the stories address these topics, they never seem to dwell cerebral on them – they are the lived physicality of mental health in a world that breeds addiction. The stories bleed emotion without ever being sappy or heavy-handed.
Cyberpunk Without the Misogyny
I know cyberpunk has come a long way since the 1960s. But I happened to be reading Midwestern Chrome while also listening to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as my car book. While I love Philip K. Dick, it isn’t lost on me that so far he has described the breasts of every female character in the story. For me, the gritty male-detective POV common to cyberpunk naturally leads to misogynistic writing. Which is why I was tickled pink by the lead novella in Midwestern Chrome featuring the head of woman. Can’t describe the naked flesh of a woman if she’s all head, can you? The story put me at ease, opening my mind for the possibilities in this book.
It’s been about two weeks since I finished this collection, and I still find myself thinking about it daily, wondering exactly what made it so good. Honestly, I can’t put it into words beyond reading it felt like an experience. All I can say is that it was unexpected for me, and it’s now one of my favorite books. Put it on your lists.
