Apocalypse then

"In Apocalypse the pain of living is having to wait it out. DeMarinis's characters sense that life is a trap, but they are unable to embrace the changes and challenges that might offer escape. They try alcohol, they try travel, and (most of all) they try off-limits love. They find themselves in harm's way, or put themselves there - but in life, as the title story states, "sometimes the worst doesn't happen."" "In "The Missile Gypsies," a nuclear engineer's casual faith in a universal safety mechanism is derailed by a surprise liaison with a coworker, an affair he is clumsily unable to hide from his wife. "Moss spent the rest of the night in his truck telling himself he was a good man with poor judgment. He had no personal trigger-lock." In "Freaks," an overweight adolescent boy's awkwardness is suddenly, wildly replicated in an ailment befalling his father, who begins seeing double, falls impotent, and develops small, lactating breasts. After the cause is found and corrected, father and son find themselves rethinking "normal." In "Birds of the Mountain West," a man goes to comfort his friend, a suicidal drunk, and recalls seeing birds intoxicated on fermented berries. "Then, at sunset, the mob of wasted waxwings settled in a single tree and faced the setting sun, trilling long plaintive notes for the dying of the light - a fine feathered choir of happily pious drunks ... ""--Jacket.

Year

2004

Language

English

Publisher

Seven Stories Press

Editions

1

Pages

272

ISBN

9781583227022

Data source: Wikidata