Anton Solomonik in conversation with Naomi Kanakia about his debut story collection, Realistic Fiction
The Rockridge Improvement Club
5515 College Ave, Oakland
June 24, 2025
When I saw the announcement that Anton Solomonik would be doing a reading from his new novel Realistic Fiction at the Rockridge Improvement Club, I was all in. The narrator of the story follows a model of masculinity given to him by his father, who reads only spy and police novels. Through this tilted lens, men exist in a state of constant action and occupy a rather lofty (yet manly) emotional high ground. All of these elements sounded both hilarious and intriguing as I found my seat at a fairly crowded bar on a warm summer night in June.
After an enthusiastic introduction from East Bay Booksellers owner Brad Johnson, who partnered with Little Puss Press for the event, Solomonik slid shyly into view. Nearly vibrating with nerves, he gave a lengthy and overwrought introduction to the excerpt he had chosen. His voice a monotonous mumble that often drifted into backstory and personal commentary, I found myself trying to discern what was part of the writing and what was the author's aside. It was not an easy task. The meanderings drifted so far from the plot that I am still not entirely sure what the story was about. It made for a very long fifty minutes. Luckily, Solomonik, New York based but a Bay Area native, was surrounded by a supportive crowd filled to the brim with family and friends.
Even with the confusing reading, beautifully crafted phrases broke through, revealing Solomonik’s sharp sense of humor and cleverness. I was left wondering what followed such phrases as “nervous phallus” or tantalizing lines; “when I still envisioned myself as a physically frail intellectual man.” Really, who wouldn’t be curious?
In each short tale in Realistic Fiction, a new character explores the idea of masculinity and the appearance expected to hold it up. In “The Meaningful Ex,” the final story of the collection and the one we heard the final pages of, the character’s loneliness and inability to identify and meet traditional expectations of masculinity are central. The character exists in a state of flux, questioning their identity while also attempting to define the space they may occupy in the world. Their actions follow the posture of a masculine hero, though the actions themselves may have little to do with the ideals.
“The Meaningful Ex started speaking from behind the curtain. ‘For one kiss will thou then be willing to give all? But who so gives one particle of dust to lose all in that hour,’ they said in a metered voice. It was true. When Rex Racer made me eat dog food, when I made him make me eat dog food, in that moment, it changed and redeemed everything.”
The narrator wonders whether continued humiliation might lead to a world where humiliation is normalized: Solomonik's offers a take on masculinity obscured in twisted intelligence.
Although the talk was difficult to follow, the writing itself tugged at my attention enough to make me want to pick up a copy of Realistic Fiction and explore for myself where these wayward, yet oddly familiar, characters might travel. Painfully awkward in a way that only someone searching for a sense of self in a world with undefined but rigid roles can be, Solomonik's voice gave just enough to suggest that taking a deeper look into his fiction may be well worth the read.