This collection of short stories frankly faces up to our 20th- and 21st-century political and social messes. In "Magic Carpet over the Euphrates," the tech-savvy "ghost" of an Iraqi suicide bomber is recruited by an American drone operator. Will the discovery of a headless baby push either one of them to new decisions? In "How I Met the Real Vincent," why does a young gay man named Vinh, immigrated as a child during the Vietnam War, cruise New York bandaged as an ear-less Vincent Van Gogh? You'll wonder, along with a ...
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This collection of short stories frankly faces up to our 20th- and 21st-century political and social messes. In "Magic Carpet over the Euphrates," the tech-savvy "ghost" of an Iraqi suicide bomber is recruited by an American drone operator. Will the discovery of a headless baby push either one of them to new decisions? In "How I Met the Real Vincent," why does a young gay man named Vinh, immigrated as a child during the Vietnam War, cruise New York bandaged as an ear-less Vincent Van Gogh? You'll wonder, along with a nursing home resident in "Shorn" is the hysteria really past that drove countries in World War II to shave the heads of thousands of their own women for "disloyalty"? Sometimes through magic realism, sometimes through all-too-true realism, you'll laugh at, cry over, and, just maybe, figure something to do about our modern economies, attitudes, and wars.
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