Michael Liska vs Uzodinma Okehi

I’ll spare you my knee-jerk impression of historical novels. And, obviously, there’s a formula to everything, I get it. People that seem real, that’s all I want. Those explosive, little tragedies of free will. I’d never read a Liska story before. His new book, Alice, or The Wild Girl (Heresy Press, 2025), from page one, is a flood of characters. Of their daydreams, their conflicting mythologies. Set in 1856, but all too familiar in that way any collective of people becomes an unstable, inevitable beast. From the servant boy, the seamen. The ship’s doctor, bartering for teeth. For his hideous (but period accurate!) set of dentures. The young and pious First Lieutenant, being slowly poisoned by bitter reality. All the way up to the substance-addled Lieutenant Bird, his delusions of grandeur . . . The book begins at sea. Shortly after, we’re introduced to Alice. Lone survivor of a castaway group, found on a tiny island. The entwined story of Alice and the Lieutenant. Part maritime saga, from there into a sprawling, page-burning tragedy. Captivating prose. I was excited to feel so swept along. Shocked. Even afraid at points. But so many moments! Finishing the book, my thought was–deep breath–Ok, let’s talk about it. Liska and I talked via a Google doc.