With a bent on the curious details, the awkward moments of life, and downright dark secrets and closeted skeletons, this collection of short stories spans more than two decades of the author's work. From horrific stories of a honeymoon turned grotesque and a woman putting herself quite literally into her weaving work to an escape from the most mundane of offices and a series of chance encounters with a well-shouldered gentleman with a fussy eating dog, these stories cross genres and tones to provide a truly wide array of elicited emotions. This title carries no narrative structure from story to story but handily serves to collect the author's work in an anthology and celebrate the weirdness of life in all its shapes and circumstances.
It can be difficult to lock down a specific group of readers who would enjoy this title simply for the way it transcends genres so easily, but the quality of the prose and the mastery of description make it a brilliant choice for lovers of creative fiction. Jumping from something not out of place on The Twilight Zone to bizarre character pieces that evoke the most creative cinematic works from directors like Lynch, Tarantino, and Luhrmann, readers who appreciate treading far from the beaten path will be delighted and surprised by each story collected in this volume. The mainstream reader may be left scratching his or her head trying to decipher the meaning behind each of these stories, but this is creative writing for the creative writer at its best: It's challenging, inspirational, and nearly impossible to predict.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review