This debut compilation of 15 tales, often driven by unlikely premises, works hard to upend readers\u2019 assumptions. \u201cMy Son, David,\u201d for example, centers on a young boy\u2019s unsettling plea to leave his bedroom window open\u2014and allow access to monsters that only he can see: \u201cThey need to come back or they can\u2019t go home.\u201d Many tales\u2019 premises carry stark consequences, including the risk of damnation, as when an alluring hitchhiker tells the overeager buyer of \u201cJeremy\u2019s New Car,\u201d \u201cWell, you make nothing in hell, right? So, to make that money, you\u2019ve gotta work a pretty long time.\u201d In other cases, the price doesn\u2019t mean risking life or limb, but continuing to carry the weight of an unrealized dream\u2014a fate that ensnares an obsessive hunter in \u201cThe Majestic, but Elusive, Rhino-Elephant\u201d and an overly ambitious couple scrambling for an unobstructed view of Lake Ontario in \u201cThe Views Are Wonderful\u201d: \u201cBeing underwater is a terrible thing, whether in the lake, or on dry land seven stories up.\u201d The overall effect, in the best of these tales, is a deft blend of Twilight Zone\u2013style irony and Ernest Hemingway\u2013like economy, as in \u201cRachel,\u201d whose final twist brings down the curtain on a story within a story. Other works seem closer to sketches, although they\u2019re still served up with economical flair. \u201cThe Hand That Claps Last, Claps Loudest,\u201d for instance, seems like a setup to the dirty joke about \u201copportunities that are presented and taken away\u201d during a torrid sexual encounter, yet it only takes 250 words to make its point. The stories\u2019 lessons would be lost or muddled in lesser hands, but they\u2019re clearly imprinted with the author\u2019s style and raise expectations for future offerings.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This debut compilation of 15 tales, often driven by unlikely premises, works hard to upend readers\u2019 assumptions. \u201cMy Son, David,\u201d for example, centers on a young boy\u2019s unsettling plea to leave his bedroom window open\u2014and allow access to monsters that only he can see: \u201cThey need to come back or they can\u2019t go home.\u201d Many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}