Description

Book Synopsis
In this collection of two novellas and seven short stories, Alf MacLochlainn comically reduces life’s problems to the minute details of everyday existence. Socks, shoes, and trousers suggest perplexing difficulties: how best to put them on, the intricacies involved in keeping them on, the physical (as well as psychological) laws related to the interaction of body and clothing. All such speculations come to an absurd, crashing halt as the contemporary mind, filled with an overload of information, attempts but fails to make sense of some of the simplest, though of course complex, mundane facts of daily life. From Dublin to Central Illinois to Outer Space, MacLochlainn’s stories embody the imaginative spirit of Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien.

Trade Review
"Through sharp characterizations and personal insights, rather than literary allusions, Mac Lochlainn creates a story that is both moving and meditative." -- PW

Corpus in the Library: Stories and Novellas

    Product form

    A Paperback / softback by Alf Mac Lochlainn, Alf Maclochlainn

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      Book details

      Publisher Dalkey Archive Press
      Published 13 June 1996
      ISBN-13 9781564780683
      978-1564780683
      ISBN-10 1564780686

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      In this collection of two novellas and seven short stories, Alf MacLochlainn comically reduces life’s problems to the minute details of everyday existence. Socks, shoes, and trousers suggest perplexing difficulties: how best to put them on, the intricacies involved in keeping them on, the physical (as well as psychological) laws related to the interaction of body and clothing. All such speculations come to an absurd, crashing halt as the contemporary mind, filled with an overload of information, attempts but fails to make sense of some of the simplest, though of course complex, mundane facts of daily life. From Dublin to Central Illinois to Outer Space, MacLochlainn’s stories embody the imaginative spirit of Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien.

      Trade Review
      "Through sharp characterizations and personal insights, rather than literary allusions, Mac Lochlainn creates a story that is both moving and meditative." -- PW

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