Dorothy Gale at the beginning of THE WIZARD OF OZ movie, is trapped in a black and white world she sees as so devoid of hope that she feels she must run away. As we realize later in the movie, all around her are the components of a world she fails to appreciate. It just hasn’t clicked for her yet. That’s how I felt about reading Michael Deforge’s A BODY BENEATH. A collection of his early works, I could see his talent but the material just wasn’t where I wanted it to be yet. There is evident growth as an artist and story teller as the collection progresses—the best stories (Recent Hires & Living Outdoors) were at the very end—but overall this is just not a good book. Having previously enjoyed—almost loved—Deforge’s later work ANT COLONY, this was particularly disappointing. Opening ANT COLONY again after reading A BODY BENEATH was like when Dorothy opened her door to see the Land of Oz for the first time. Not only is it quite literally moving from black and white to color, but ANT COLONY explodes with ideas and imagination lacking in Deforge’s earlier work. This reminded me of when I read Thomas Pynchon’s magnificent V and followed it up by reading a collection of his early short stories called SLOW LEARNER. Very disappointing but I could see that he had to work his way through the hum drum before reaching the magnificent. If you want to reach OZ, read ANT COLONY instead. If you have read ANT COLONY and still want to read this, go into it as an act of literary anthropology.