My Life Among the Apes
by Cary Fagan
ISBN: 9781770860872
Format: Trade Paperback
Size: 5.28" x 8"
Subjects:
FIC019000 FICTION / Literary
FIC029000 FICTION / Short Stories (single author)
FIC046000 FICTION / Jewish
Price: $22.00
Publication Date: August 3, 2012
Synopsis:
Cary Fagan began his career writing short stories before moving on to novels as well as numerous books for children. Yet he has never given up his love for the story form. Here are ten new stories whose characters are funny, serious, peculiar, and absorbing — as only Cary Fagan can write them.
In “The Floating Wife,” a woman looks back on the life of her husband, a retired judge whom she left after he refused to give up on his dream of being a magician.
In “Shit Box,” a young man exiled from the downtown arts scene adjusts to life in a suburban community of new immigrants.
A widow moves to New York to confront her late husband’s mistress in “The Brooklyn Revenge.”
In “My Life among the Apes,” a bank manager in a bad situation turns to his childhood obsession with Jane Goodall for inspiration.
“Lost at Sea” tells of a young couple who visit a furniture maker in searching for their true course.
A humble young waiter realizes his dream on an unusual New Year’s Eve in “The Little Underworld of Edison Wiese.”
Covering a wide range of human experience with humour and grace, My Life among the Apes is a testament to Cary Fagan’s mastery of his craft.
Longlisted, 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Winner, 2014 Wilfrid Laurier Common Reading Program
Reviews
“The volume’s 10 stories are, without exception, splendid yarns, told with the practised ease of a natural storyteller.”
— Quill & Quire
“There is humour in these stories, pathos and great yarn telling. Remarkable narrative gifts. Thank you Mr. Fagan for such a fabulous Christmas/Hanukkah/birthday present.”
— Toronto Star
“The reading of these tales is a pleasurable experience and a reminder of what the sinews of short fiction are all about.”
— National Post
“Fagan writes plausible tales told from the perspective of believable and relatable narrators. In other words, if short stories are your thing and more notably even if they’re not, you can’t go wrong here.”
— opinionless.com
“[Fagan] is gifted with a subtle, but still frequently unsettling, touch. His stories, which frequently consider Jewish identity, explore notions of pleasure and joy, displacement, and alienation as naturally occurring phenomena in his characters’ lives … In smooth, graceful prose, Fagan exposes the reader to men who chart their own unusual paths, rejecting societal definitions of success and failure.”
— Shawn Syms, canlit.ca