Bøger af Len Joy

Literary Titan says fans of short stories will enjoy the loosely threaded stories that show life cannot be seen as black and white, as every situation always has gray areas. Colin, a wealthy, unhappy businessman waits for his wife at Windows on the World and dreams about the only woman he ever loved. (Casualties). Clancy flirts with the young woman who swims laps with him as his stroke-damaged wife waits for him at her nursing home. (Freestyle) A father grieves for his fireman son who died on 9-11. (Without a Trace) Missy has too much drink, falls out of her truck and gets run over by it. Twice. (Happy Hour) A man tries to come to terms with his unloving, dying mother. (Cheap Salvation) A car thief finds redemption. (Second Chances) A son goes searching for his alcoholic father and finds more than he bargained for. (Dancer Stonemason is Missing). On his retirement day, a teacher who had given up years ago, discovers a long-lost letter from one of his students. (Peace Time) These stories and the other twenty short pieces that comprise this collection all deal with people who have in one way or another lost their way. Or found it. They are sad, happy, silly, tragic, whimsical, raunchy, redemptive, and occasionally creepy. (Rocky Point Crabs - 1978)

Everyone dies famous is a story from the heartland about the uncommon lives of everyday people - the choices they make, how they live their lives, and how they die. As a tornado threatens their town, a stubborn old man who has lost his son teams up with a troubled young soldier to deliver a jukebox to the wealthy developer having an affair with the soldier's wife. It's July 2003 and the small town of Maple Springs, Missouri is suffering through a month-long drought. Dancer Stonemason, a long-forgotten hometown hero still grieving over the death of his oldest son, is moving into town to live with his more dependable younger son. He hires Wayne Mesirow, an Iraq war veteran, to help him liquidate his late son's business. The heat wave breaks and the skies darken. Dancer tries to settle an old score while Wayne discovers the true cost of his wife's indifference and turns his thoughts to revenge. When the tornado hits Maple Springs, only one of the men will make it out alive. "Len Joy's Everyone Dies Famous is a clear-eyed examination of how we live in an uncertain world. By creating imminently understandable characters and skillfully linking them to a specific landscape, one that is so evocatively described, he shows us all the ways in which we're connected, how fragile those threads are. In clear prose, Joy does real work here. I'm grateful for it." - KEVIN WILSON, author of Nothing to See Here "Mr. Joy sweeps us headlong into the swirling fury of lives buffeted not only by hail, rain, and wind, but even more so by disappointment, disillusion, and regret. He captures both physical and emotional dread with inexorable intensity." - JOE KILGORE, author of A Farmhouse in the Rain

As a tornado threatens their town, a stubborn old man who has lost his son teams up with a troubled young soldier to deliver a jukebox to the wealthy developer having an affair with the soldier''s wife. It''s July 2003 and the small town of Maple Springs, Missouri is suffering through a month-long drought. Dancer Stonemason, a long-forgotten hometown hero still grieving over the death of his oldest son, is moving into town to live with his more dependable younger son. He hires Wayne Mesirow, an Iraq war veteran, to help him liquidate his late son''s business. The heat wave breaks and the skies darken. Dancer tries to settle an old score while Wyne discovers the true cost of his wife''s indifference and turns his thoughts to revenge. When the tornado hits Maple Springs, only one of the men will make it out alive. "Everyone Dies Famous" is a story from the heartland about the uncommon lives of everyday people - the choices they make, how they live their lives, and how they die.