Description
In this collection of stories, the characters live seemingly ordinary lives, but, with attention to the nuances of language, their perversions and subversions are revealed with wit and acuity, sometimes in the surreal realm of fantasy.
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In the title novella, Koslowski, beset by a kind of survivor's guilt, insists to the point of absurdity that his elaborate dental work is emblematic of his immigrant parents' suffering in World War II. In "Francesca," a mild-mannered professor finds himself calmly contemplating incest, and in "Hostages to Fortune," a seemingly conventional couple construct a sadly macabre version of family life. The journalist in "Sightings of Loretta" realizes he has spent years pursuing a chimerical, unfulfilled romance, while oblivious to his own wife. Several of the stories take place in the surreal realm of fantasy itself; "Deadly Nightshade" is a whimsical conjecture about the first woman brave enough to eat a tomato, long considered poisonous.
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