| Author: | Stephen Leary | ISBN: | 9781533796806 |
| Publisher: | Stephen Leary | Publication: | August 9, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Stephen Leary |
| ISBN: | 9781533796806 |
| Publisher: | Stephen Leary |
| Publication: | August 9, 2014 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
This baker's dozen presents the game of chess, its stage and actors, as symbols of an incomprehensible world, a means of communication beyond language, an unreachable ideal, a trap, a disease, a salvation. These stories are literary, hallucinatory, and mystifying, resisting easy conclusions or explanations.
The ghosts of Poe, Hemingway, Borges, and Nabokov haunt these stories, as they are my favorite authors and surely the stories have been influenced in some way by all of them. I like all the stories, otherwise why publish them under your own name, but I feel I achieved something special with a few in particular. I'm thinking of "Pawn Storm" and "The Screaming Cry of the Chessbird." The idea was to create something original and lasting in these and all the other stories.
Contents
Foreword
Notes on writing short stories and the ideas behind this chess-themed collection.
Queen of the Chess Cult
The search for a beautiful queen who presides over a cult with a sacred book listing the moves of the perfect chess game.
Pawn Storm
Falling from the sky are snowflakes like chess pieces.
A Wasted Life
A man gives up chess but is continually reminded of it to his chagrin.
Klooster
A sunny day at a lake house reclining in beach chairs with chess, sandwiches, beer, and a pretty girl.
The Chess Plague
A mysterious plague devastates a town and especially its chess players.
A Bowl of Stew
A man and woman enter a cafe and discuss their personal interests while waiting for their dishes to arrive.
City of a Thousand Chess Clubs
A town with many unusual chess clubs unlike anywhere else.
A Dimly-Lighted Cafe
An old man waits vainly for chess opponents at a cafe.
A Legacy for Jim Zorn
A chess player from the 1970s dies in a small Ohio town and the locals recollect what they knew about him.
The Prisoner's Tale
Terrorists capture a prisoner who explains his life story to his cellmate using chess pieces instead of words.
The Screaming Cry of the Chessbird
A giant bird terrorizes a metropolis.
The Unwrapping
Friends unwrap gifts at a Christmas dinner.
The Infinite Chessboard
This world is a chessboard whose squares change in size, number, and color.
This baker's dozen presents the game of chess, its stage and actors, as symbols of an incomprehensible world, a means of communication beyond language, an unreachable ideal, a trap, a disease, a salvation. These stories are literary, hallucinatory, and mystifying, resisting easy conclusions or explanations.
The ghosts of Poe, Hemingway, Borges, and Nabokov haunt these stories, as they are my favorite authors and surely the stories have been influenced in some way by all of them. I like all the stories, otherwise why publish them under your own name, but I feel I achieved something special with a few in particular. I'm thinking of "Pawn Storm" and "The Screaming Cry of the Chessbird." The idea was to create something original and lasting in these and all the other stories.
Contents
Foreword
Notes on writing short stories and the ideas behind this chess-themed collection.
Queen of the Chess Cult
The search for a beautiful queen who presides over a cult with a sacred book listing the moves of the perfect chess game.
Pawn Storm
Falling from the sky are snowflakes like chess pieces.
A Wasted Life
A man gives up chess but is continually reminded of it to his chagrin.
Klooster
A sunny day at a lake house reclining in beach chairs with chess, sandwiches, beer, and a pretty girl.
The Chess Plague
A mysterious plague devastates a town and especially its chess players.
A Bowl of Stew
A man and woman enter a cafe and discuss their personal interests while waiting for their dishes to arrive.
City of a Thousand Chess Clubs
A town with many unusual chess clubs unlike anywhere else.
A Dimly-Lighted Cafe
An old man waits vainly for chess opponents at a cafe.
A Legacy for Jim Zorn
A chess player from the 1970s dies in a small Ohio town and the locals recollect what they knew about him.
The Prisoner's Tale
Terrorists capture a prisoner who explains his life story to his cellmate using chess pieces instead of words.
The Screaming Cry of the Chessbird
A giant bird terrorizes a metropolis.
The Unwrapping
Friends unwrap gifts at a Christmas dinner.
The Infinite Chessboard
This world is a chessboard whose squares change in size, number, and color.
