Customer Reviews

Comedians (Contemporary American Fiction)

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This is a very interesting collection of short stories by John L'Heureux. I believe that the crux of this book can be summed up in his statement as follows:

"And to that history, which he cannot alter, he brings his own mystical belief: that from all this suffering there must eventually come some kind of redemption".

Suffering and redemption play a large thematic role in this collection. Of note, are the following stories:

1) Comedian: A Stand-up comic becomes pregnant with a baby who sings but will be born dumb. This is a poignantly beautiful story.

2) The Expert on God: A priest doubts the existence of love and God. Yet, through faith, he tries to conjure love.

3) A Gift: What makes a real person - his true goodness or his meanness of spirit.

4) Father: An artist disappears into his painting. Again, the question arises, what is real?

5) Rejoice and Be Glad: A woman dying of uterine cancer tries to make a deal with herself. Her hope is to assign more meaning to the ending of her life.

6) The Terrible Mirror: A Novella: An artist and his wife live lives neither balanced nor synchronous, yet intertwined.