Fiction Short Stories (single Author)
There Goes the Neighbourhood
Short Stories
- Publisher
- Frontenac House Ltd.
- Initial publish date
- Jul 2017
- Category
- Short Stories (single author)
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781927823682
- Publish Date
- Jul 2017
- List Price
- $19.95
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Description
There Goes the Neighbourhood is a collection of ten dark-humoured stories that explore the urban setting and portray not only what might go on behind closed doors, but also in front. The stories are of mixed genre: realism, hyperrealism, magic realism, sci-fi, pomo, noir... with some attempt at genre-bending in particular cases, such as might be found in the works of Rod Serling, Julio Cortazar or Franz Kafka. The characters range from the lesser to the more educated and this interaction is most-often reflected in the use of dialogue and discourse, ranging from the erudite to the profane. These are characters of acceptance. If life deals lemons, they rarely consider making lemonade. Rather, they accept what is given and try to make the best of a bad deal and hope for the best. A young couple is chastised by neighbours for fencing in their back garden. An older couple is offered a chance to earn money by shooting a porn video in their basement. An old voyeur spies on the actions of a mail deliverer. The results are generally more amusing than tragic, along the lines of Charlie Chaplin's tramp.
About the authors
Born in Vancouver, Stan Rogal now lives in Toronto. He ran the popular Idler Pub Reading Series for ten years, was co-creator of Bald Ego Theatre, and is now the artistic director of Bulletproof Theatre. He is the author of the novel, The Long Drive Home (Insomniac, 1999), and numerous poetry collections, including Geometry of the Odd, (Wolsak & Wynn, 1999), In Search of the Emerald City (Seraphim, 2004) and Fabulous Freaks (Wolsak & Wynn, 2005). Lines of Embarkation is Stan's fifth book of poetry.
