ADDLED ESSENCE

ADDLED ESSENCE

The most plausible excuse for a short story collection as varied and

scrambled as this one is that it’s a grab bag of oddities that couldn’t be

disguised within a sensibly-themed book. But anchored by the longest,

Addled Essence, a belated story of two late teen KoreanWar veterans

lost within themselves on a varied road trip of self-discovery as told years

later in grandfather-hood, it compiles a litany of characters, situations

and philosophy that forms an eccentric saga.

A few titles from the other thirty-eight stories might produce reader

vertigo: Idas’s Journey, Anonymous Anonymity, Matters Most Private,

Excess Baggage, Celestial Bar and Grill, All In and Then Some, Brother

and Sister Act, Human Factors in Daily Life, Wake the Dead and An

Infinite Instant. Birth, Burglary, Childhood, Death, Drugs, Family,

Fantasy, Fate, Fear, Humor, Love, Movies, Murder, Parody, Parents,

Poker, Police, Politics, Psychoses and Senior-hood soar throughout like

birds gone mad on alcohol-laced nut meats. These tales are an acquired

taste for those who walk, lope or run on the literary wild side.