Jeff Jackson’s “Mira Corpora” Mixes Journal Entries with Fantasy

When’s the last time you picked up an old notebook?

My notebooks are filled with angry stanzas that could hardly qualify as poetry, doodles of samurai where there should be algebraic equations, and the occasional short story. If you flipped through my old journals and diaries, you could probably learn a lot about me, because I used my journals as a getaway from reality. Or maybe your journal is your archive of your reality.

“Mira Corpora” (Two Dollar Radio, 2013) is a collection of surreal journal entries by Jeff Jackson, a celebrated author and playwright. The book “is a coming-of-age story for people who hate coming-of-age stories” according to Jackson’s website.

What exactly does that mean? In “Mira Corpora,” the narrator, Jeff Jackson, finds his old journal and reads through entries from distant stages of his life. Most of the stories seem to be fantastical, such as being tied to a tree and covered with dog food, finding a hidden tribe of runaway teenagers, meeting mysterious teenage oracles, living on the streets behind a Chinese restaurant and searching for a schizophrenic rock star. These could be fiction; they certainly seem made up. But what sort of journals was Jackson keeping that could be reinvented as such wild and surreal stories? Do the stories mean anything at all?

Some stories are described so vividly that it’s hard to imagine they’re fictitious. Jackson tells a story of his abusive, alcoholic mother. He was covered in burns from clothes irons, curling irons and pans, anything that could be used as punishment for a young boy. Later in the book, Jackson is guided from the streets to be kidnapped and even enslaved. The segments are equally disturbing and gripping.

Did a teenager make up these intense scenarios? They seem too real to be mere imagination. But the best part about the book is that we never really know whether or not these journals are real or not. It could be all non-fiction, all fiction, or perhaps a blend of both.

The other part of Jackson’s writing style that makes “Mira Corpora” worth the read is the style. The writing is a deliciously crafted work of prose poetry that can make you cringe and smile all at once. His vocabulary is diverse, his words are efficient and his story is enticing. The words practically drip interest onto the pages. Simply by flipping through these pages, because they are so much like a journal, we are exposed to an intimate account of a writer, and furthermore, a human. Even if these events are fictional, the aftermath is very real, and it seems as if Jackson’s emotions are poured into the text.

Although “Mira Corpora” follows several subplots rather than a solid story line, the character development is still present. Jackson transforms from a nervous young boy to a lonely survivor, submissive and defeated. At the end, when Jackson finishes his journals, we see the true impact on the author in a drunken spree of anger and remorse.

“Mira Corpora” has taught me that in both imagination and in reality, humans are easily broken. Emotions are real no matter what. To experience a dreamlike blur between reality and exaggeration, read Jeff Jackson’s “Mira Corpora”.

Shane Hoyle, Staff Writer.