About the Author
Lesley Bannatyne is an American author who writes extensively on Halloween, especially its history, literature, and contemporary celebration. As a freelance journalist, she's covered stories ranging from druids in Somerville, Massachusetts to relief workers in Bolivia. Bannatyne's fiction is collected in her debut collection Unaccustomed to Grace, out from Kallisto Gaia Press in March, 2022.
Follow @BannatyneLesley on Twitter, Visit lesleybannatyne.com
About the book
The stories in Unaccustomed to Grace are often set in a slant version of reality where the extraordinary can exist side-by-side with the ordinary. In “Waiting for Ivy” a woman grieving the loss of her infant daughter discovers a listserv of parents whose dead children have been returned, as if the tragedy were a clerical error.
In “Corpse Walks Into a Bar” an indigent loner agrees to bury a reanimated corpse, not realizing what it takes to find a resting place when the dead are as self-serving as the living. Characters throughout the collection act on impulses, quixotic to ferocious: a suburban dad leads a violent riot against his neighbour; an eleven-year-old boy puts himself at the nexus of a manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber. Ultimately, the book plumbs the messiness we bring on ourselves with the best of intentions, and how we find connection and work to build a world we can survive.
Short stories are islands unto themselves - they differ in execution, possible expansion and style. Some short interludes that exist without the need to be anything than what they purport to be, then there are stories I would place in the category of ideas the author could grow. The ones that have the potential to be a novel. I think it's fair to say this author has a few growers in this compilation of shorts.
I found quite a few of them have certain elements of connection in regard to reactions to the plight of a fellow human. Do I cross my own boundaries, face my own fears and ignore ingrained societal responses and do what my gut says is the right thing to do? Also what impact do these actions, gestures have on the person themselves, not just the person they have decided to engage with or help.
Written at times with a tongue in cheek nod to certain ironies and contradictive behaviour, they are also stories with depth. If you position yourself just slightly differently, if indeed you are willing to do so, then you might be surprised to find the world, the people around you, and your idea of what constitutes a problem to be solved - it might just look completely different.
I'd love to see some of the these short stories evolve into something longer, the Corpse Walks into a Bar is an excellent example of that - I have so many unanswered questions. Either way I would certainly enjoy reading more by this particular author.
Buy Unaccustomed to Grace at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Kallisto Gaia Press pub date 8 Feb. 2022. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Kallisto Gaia Press.
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