Whirl Away

This short story collection examines when coping skills slip – denial, pragmatism, or delusion. A caretaker of a prairie amusement park, the lone occupant of a collapsing Newfoundland town, a travelling sports drink marketer with a pressing need to get off the road, an elevator inspector who finds himself losing his marriage amid sensuous food gourmandizing – all spin out of control into new worlds.

In the first, “Bolt”, a truck skids off the road into a bright pink field of fireweed. Suddenly “a rusty bolt John had found in the driveway, a bolt that he’d tossed in the back of the pickup with the duffle bags and the mitre saw” — flies up front. His skull cracks “at the midline and just below the hair, hitting that smooth dent where a lover might rest a hand.”