Perpetual Care

More about the book

This collection of short stories, which was awarded the 2007 Jefferson Press prize for Best New Voice in Fiction, explores the milieu of what post-Katrina New Orleans residents have come to call the isle of denial--a resilient and intact sliver of civilization surrounded by a sea of devastation. Evoking the comic grotesque legacy of Flannery O'Connor and John Kennedy Toole, these pieces inhabit a variety of piquant souls, including a Creole spinster, a transvestite plumber, a gambler who makes prosthetic eyes, a food critic who winds up with a mouthful of his best friend's ashes, and a grief-stricken young woman who sneaks a clock radio into her boyfriend's casket. They share a common trait of perverse denial in the face of historic or private defeat. Each story provides a window into aspects of the city and its' captivating neighborhoods while tendering startling revelations on elemental themes of death, sex, and restoration.