Whatever Happens

This is a collection of stories for people who feel that reality is not the best deal going. Tim Conley explores the fragility of our perceptions as well as the illusions that we so badly need. Sometimes spare, these sixteen stories move between the obsessive and the disinterested, the extraordinary and the humdrum. In "Means to an End", a man who has not quite come to the end of his rope meets a woman who wants to borrow it; in "Constellation", an unforeseen meteorite destroys an astrologists' convention; a taciturn botanist confronts his unfaithful wife in "The Greenhouse Effect"; and in "Last One In", an argument about which man has the better sense of hearing ends in disaster. Influenced by - but expanding upon - the work of Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Queneau, and the European avant-garde, Conley's work combines realism with metaphysical concerns to create a comedic, yet always striking, first collection of fictions.

Reality is not the best deal going.

Publishers Weekly

This debut collection of 19 very short stories combines keenly observed real situations with fantastic and at times surreal touches. Conley veers from neighbors politely fencing verbally over the rope they each intend to hang themselves with, to four guys going to a bar in the company of a talking dog, and over to the dream of an unhappily married painter. Through all of the shenanigans, Conley stays focused on the emotional truths that run through even the shaggiest of his shaggy (or talking) dog stories. Highlights include "Good Faith" (featuring "the usual people... Grant and Yellow and myself"), "Checking" (where a birdbath delicately evokes a brother's drowning) and the touching dinner table exchanges of "A Country Called Roughage." Lovely small perceptions of character balance the funhouse quality of stories, in which women literally fly away and Bellini's Norma is held to be "the greatest opera for the lost." Some of the stories read as mere absurdist sketches or roughed-out concepts, but they come off as earnest experimentation rather than cloying whimsy. The easy intimacy Conley wrests from bewildering situations is marvelous. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Whatever Happens is a collection of stories for people who feel that reality is not the best deal going. Tim Conley explores the fragility of our perceptions as well as the illusions that we so badly need. Sometimes spare, these nineteen stories move between the obsessive and the disinterested, the extraordinary and the humdrum. In'Means to an End,'a man who has not quite come to the end of his rope meets a woman who wants to borrow it; in'Constellation,'an unforeseen meteorite destroys an astrologists'convention; a taciturn botanist confronts his unfaithful wife in'The Greenhouse Effect'; and in'Last One In,'an argument about which man has the better sense of hearing ends in disaster. Influenced by — but expanding upon — the work of Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Queneau, and the European avant-garde, Conley's work combines realism with metaphysical concerns to create a comedic, yet always striking, first collection of fictions. "Whatever Happens" is a collection of stories for people who feel that reality is not the best deal going. Tim Conley explores the fragility of our perceptions as well as the illusions that we so badly need. Sometimes spare, these sixteen stories move between the obsessive and the disinterested. Influenced by the work of Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Queneau, and the European avant-garde, Conley's work combines realism with metaphysical concerns to create a comedic and striking first collection of fiction. Tim Conley's fiction, essays, poetry, and translations have appeared in numerous international magazines. He runs In Case of Emergency Press and lives in St. Catharines, where he teaches at Brock University Front cover......Page 1 whatever happens pages......Page 2 Contents......Page 8 Means to an End......Page 10 Constellation......Page 18 The Tip......Page 26 Way to Go......Page 38 Good Faith......Page 44 Solacium......Page 54 The Watch......Page 60 The greenhouse effect......Page 68 The Annotated Affair......Page 78 Doubt’s Dream......Page 86 An Unlikely Sequence......Page 94 Checking......Page 100 Plot......Page 112 In the meantime......Page 120 A country called Roughage......Page 136 Privileged Motions......Page 144 Caught in the Act......Page 154 Loss of an Icon......Page 164 Last One In......Page 170 Acknowledgments......Page 178 Back cover......Page 179