The Other World: Stories

"One of the best books of the decade." (The James White Review) "A book to handle with asbestos gloves but well worth the walk through fire." (Paul Monette, National Book Award winner) "This is an incredibly powerful book." (Rebecca Brown, Lambda Literary Award winner) From the author of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated novel THE RED SHOES Peopled with sociopaths, circus performers, a cross-dressing teenage boy, a sex worker and her pimp, and God-fearing families, the stories in THE OTHER WORLD are dark, disturbing, yet hauntingly beautiful, and have a hallucinatory edge, making the everyday seem like another world . . . The Other World In this dark satire, a Christian right family is so concerned about sheltering their teenage son from homosexuality that they‘re oblivious to the fact he‘s the neighborhood rapist. Nameless Thing In this Texas circus, three into two don‘t go. A triangle involving a dwarf, a friendly costume er, and her surly lover ends in tragedy above the banks of the Rio Grande. Raphael Raphael, a cross-dressing teenage boy, spends the Christmas holiday at the Plaza Hotel in New York with his high-strung mother ... but can only think of his romantic fantasies about the family chauffeur. Lights of Broadway A Times Square prostitute discounts the violent threats her john makes against a hit queer musical down the street from her apartment ... with devastating consequences. Halloween Card A drug-fueled loft party for Manhattan hipsters ends up in a surprising location come the dawn. Vulture In the Deep South, an aimless drifter kills his girlfriend and tries to hide her body in a well ... but he‘s not alone. He‘s being watched by a young girl. Praise for THE OTHER WORLD "If there is a bright spot at all to this country‘s history of puritanical repression, it is in its tradition of ‘outsider‘ art, art fueled by feelings of otherness that have been shared by certain artists [such as] Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Truman Capote ... And now there‘s John Stewart Wynne, whose first collection of stories The Other World is among the most remarkable books I have ever read." (The James White Review) "This walk on the wild side of human nature can be startling, outrageous, frightening, and sometimes even funny, but Wynne‘s smooth, commanding style keeps the shocks in these stories from becoming mannered or numbing." (Booklist) "Wynne‘s prose is chiseled and precise. And in pages that tremble with beauty, Wynne gracefully reveals the darker side of human possibilities." (Details) "With so much tepid and sentimental fiction coming out, Wynne‘s stories are like a plunge in cold water. With a near-Brechtian intensity of focus and an infallible ear for dialog, Wynne casts a laser eye on the things we say, so different from the things we mean ... People on the edge, the margins of love ..." (Paul Monette, National Book Award winner)