Grim Tales

“ Grim Tales is a mythological catalog of the peculiar, a string of strange, often murderous urban myths. It comes on fast and dirty, micro-moments on micro-moments, each wasting no time in lunging at the throat." —Blake Butler PRAISE “This is book as turbulence disrupting the smooth sea, as anti-matter breaking bonds that had never before been broken. Throughout, the book defies the physics and metaphysics of our known world even as it pretends to a reaching backward, to drawing forth these tales from some shared past, dissembling not to deceive but to aggress us anew. See the quotation marks which suggest some unavailable subtext but which quote nothing but Lock's own imagination, or else that of his arranging characters, his possible narrator, and you see the layers of interpretation he is willing to risk so as to prevent any easy explanation, any trite truth too cleverly left unconcealed. Better always that the work be mysterious, that the... "My Life as a Mermaid and Other Stories, Jen Grow's stirring debut collection and winner of the Dzanc Short Story Collection Contest, takes a look at the dark side of what it means to live 'happily ever after.' In these twelve stories, many of the characters--among them, a suburban wife, an alcoholic mother, two homeless men, and an injured veteran--grapple with being voiceless and feeling trapped. The image of water shows up in many of these stories representing both the safety of the womb and the threat of drowning. The title story juxtaposes the lives of two sisters: one a suburban wife and mother, the other a relief worker in Honduras. In "Joe Blow," two homeless men confront the gentrification of their neighborhood when the abandoned truck that they call home is towed away. "What Girls Leave Behind" is an alcoholic mother's account of how she lost custody of her daughters. The story "Fixed," inspired by the Patti Smith song "Don't Say Nothing," is a young woman's attempt to fit in at a party after the grief of losing her boyfriend to a heroin overdose. The narrator of "I Get There Late" tries, in passive-aggressive ways, to cause trouble between a married couple after showing up unannounced in their driveway one night, while the narrator of "Stray" leaves her husband to rendezvous at a motel pool with a man she paints as a clown. "Injured" tells the story of an Iraq war vet who returns home as an amputee, then glorifies war for a reporter. In the final story, "O.K., Goodbye," written in a loop of possible scenarios, a woman's attempts to leave her cheating husband are thwarted by lost keys and car trouble. Yet, she sees hope in her doppelganger, a girl with pink hair who is walking away"-- Provided by publisher This stunning collection introduces an important new voice in American fiction. The characters--among them a suburban wife, an alcoholic mother, two homeless men, and an injured veteran--grapple with being voiceless and feeling trapped. The fiction editor of Little Patuxent Review, Jen Grow 's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Writer's Chronicle , Other Voices , Sun Magazine , Indiana Review , and many others, including the anthology City Baltimore . She's received two Individual Artist Awards from Maryland State Arts. This stunning collection introduces an important new voice in American fiction. The characters—among them a suburban wife, an alcoholic mother, two homeless men, and an injured veteran—grapple with being voiceless and feeling trapped.The fiction editor of Little Patuxent Review, Jen Grow's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Writer's Chronicle, Other Voices, Sun Magazine, Indiana Review, and many others, including the anthology City Sages: Baltimore. She's received two Individual Artist Awards from Maryland State Arts.