Anthony Michael Morena

The Voyager mission, and more specifically the Golden Records they carried with them, provide for Millennials an intriguing problem: what does it mean to be the first generation to be born after the launch of craft that carry what was purported to be the cultural story of humanity? (As a late Gen-Xer, I'm aware that most of us didn't have much input on the story either, but at least we were represented.) Anthony Michael Morena's collection of lyrical essays examines the story behind that story, who chose the representative music and languages and why, and the budding relationship between Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. These essays cause us too to question now only how we should view the Golden Record but also how we should see any story that claims to be in any way global. A fascinating read, delicately balanced between history and Morena's reflections.… (mere)

This is a taut debut from a promising new author. Morena approaches the novel in a new and unique way. His post-modern style breathes new life into the form as he takes as his subject The Voyager Record (a phonograph record that was launched into space in 1977) and allows it to take his reader to outer-space and Earth, the microcosm of the narrator's life and the camera continually zooms out to capture humanity and its various cultures. With the minimal sentence structure Morena uses, it's less what's said than what is implied between the sentences and passages like the reader is invited into the narrator's confidence for his jokes, his judgments, his musings. The reader can't help feel thoughtful after reading The Voyager Record and to feel he's just read a work that is insisting (rightfully so) its own importance in modern literature. I can't wait to see what Anthony Michael Morena does next.… (mere)