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Unclaimed Blues

Unclaimed BluesUnclaimed Blues (book)

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(2008) Working in a discount furniture store in the inner city in the mid-1990s, "Bro" (as he is known to his boss), endures a series of unsettling encounters with the store's neighbors and a clientele from the poorest reaches of the community. As the demands of the owner become increasingly capricious, and his encounters with fellow employees become more frustrating and bizarre, Bro finds himself struggling against a nascent contempt bred from his own isolation and disappointment. Spare and darkly comic, the story finds a defiant humanity in its broken characters. Unclaimed Blues is an examination of the absurd economics and heartbreaking routine of the provision of the most basic articles of civilization, and a dispatch from the fuggy end of consumer capitalism. —Peter Byrne
Reckless Revivals

Reckless RevivalsReckless Revivals (book)

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(2003) A woman sees her dreams of escape slipping away in the gaps in her memory. A deliveryman transfers his dissatisfaction with the drudgery of his life into a rescue fantasy of a girl in a dysfunctional home. A young woman pieces together the essential components of her life in the aftermath of a failed love affair, while her social worker ex-lover pursues the happiness of an unexamined life with one of his clients, a recovering heroin addict with a life out of control. The characters in these stories struggle with the problem of creating an authentic self while maintaining the capacity to establish human connections. They do so through the alienating interference of identities created for them out of others’ desires and misunderstandings, and their own understanding of what is possible. —Peter Byrne
Winter Thunder

Winter ThunderWinter Thunder (book)

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(1999) A fictional journal, this emotionally charged experimental work bears witness to the dark beauty of a loved one's decline with terminal illness. By turns conversational and poetic, Winter Thunder is a powerful intimate story of love, loss, and the solace of written expression.
In the Physical Sense

In the Physical SenseIn the Physical Sense (book)

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(1992) On a four-day trip to an old farmhouse in the hills of the Southern Tier of New York State Eric, Linda, and Chuck grapple with and disclose personal histories to one another and to themselves. Within this intimate display of personal struggles and revealing conversations the main character Eric stands at a common crossroads. We find him in his mid-twenties, jobless, troubled by a noncommittal relationship with Linda and feeling an ever-present sense of stagnation. All this uncertainty positions Eric for a life change, and with this the author of In the Physical Sense weaves the past, the present and the forces of nature into an orchestrated crying out to the future. —Amy Rogers Lambert
The True Scoop

The True ScoopThe True Scoop (book)

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(1989) From the opening story, where a young father’s rage over misplaced keys blinds him to the threat of a greater loss, through the title piece concerning a college student’s initiation to obsession and self-deception, Scott Cole’s first collection of short fiction is rich with recognizable characters discovered in defining experiences. A girl confronts her fear of supernatural evil, gaining perspective on the adults around her; a soldier returns stateside to the troubled circumstances of his earliest sexual experiences; a fraternity pledge witnesses abuses that challenge his hunger for the promise of survival and belonging; a young woman trapped in the dead-end role of motel clerk reveals an unexpected capacity for self liberation; a man recognizes the inevitable end of a relationship in the simple act of his lover brushing her teeth. "The True Scoop" offers thirteen first-rate, compelling short stories.