Linda and Earl are a happy couple. Although married for many years, they have never had children. Still, they are content being together, and watching reruns of "I Love Lucy" keeps them close. That, and a magical garden that never seems to grow what they plant.One day Earl finds a set of infant toes in the loam. He and Linda plant them and watch in amazement as the garden produces an enormous baby. Now Earl and Linda have to figure out how to be parents--if they are parents--and what to do about the giant baby who eats everything and cries for his mama.

Fiction. WRECKAGE OF REASON incorporates the work of 39 contemporary women writers who are pushing the boundaries of fiction. In this diverse and comprehensive volume, the writers have manipulated traditional ways of storytelling, language, and plot, to express new and distinct ways of seeing and experiencing the world. Narrative form is subverted, provocative subject matter explored, and language takes on a scatological form to depict an authentic human experience that makes reading a truly participatory act. At the conclusion of each work, the contributor has composed a few impressions sharing what inspired her to tell that particular story. The writers include Lidia Yuknavitch, LilyGrace, Laurie Foos, Kass Fleisher, Barbara Baer, Cynthia Reeves, Lauren Schiffman, Karen Lillis, Megan Milks, Lyn Halper, Fanny Howe, Suki Wessling, Jessica Treat, Shelley Jackson, Laynie Browne, Roni Natov, Cris Mazza, Elizabeth Block, Geri DeLuca, Alicita Rodriguez, Gwen Hart, Masha Tupitsyn, Martha King, Sarah White, Nina Shope, Carmen Firan, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Anna Mockler, Sandra Miller, E.C. Bachner, Tsipi Keller, Summer Brenner, Amina Cain, Karen Brennan, Aimee Parkison, Lily Hoang, Lynda Schor, Danielle Dutton, Danielle Alexander, Debra Di Blasi, and Alexandra Chasin.

Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist is a zany story of sexual identity, repression, obsession, and the concept of art as both a destructive and redeeming force. Morton Fisk has recently died of dehydration in the family's bathtub. A famous sculptor of "Men With Chainsaws," he did all his work sealed away in the basement of their Connecticut home wearing only his torn briefs. On the eve of his daughter Frances's eighteenth birthday, his widow marries "the Kingpin," an owner of three bowling alleys. Her mother tries to lure Frances to the life of the middle class - far away from the art world and the dementia that claimed her husband. Soon Frances's life is filled with bowling balls, pins, polyurethaned floors, and pizza. Depressed, Frances visits an aquarium. Witnessing two walruses in the heat of mating, Frances is transformed - she has found her muse! The walruses start to occupy her every thought. She sees them everywhere, including her bedroom. Running in fear, Frances and her friend Bessie take to the open road, with the libidinous beasts close behind. Will Frances and Bessie survive? Can art be controlled? Will the highways be destroyed from the weight of the walruses? Foos, a brilliant young satirist, has the ability to make the bizarre sound matter-of-fact.