Character Actor — Scott Randall

In Character Actor, his second collection of short stories, Scott Randall once again gets right to the heart of ordinary characters, not the brilliantly burning stars, but the kind of people we see every day, all around us. In story after story, Randall finds the perfect pitch, from the sly, deadly determination of the ambitious company man who will not be outdone by the threatening new talent, to the law-school dropout who becomes more and more isolated in his shame, his only connection to the academic world the labs where he volunteers for psychology experiments.

In an extended story suite, an ordinary dysfunctional family comes undone after the death of a child, each member indelibly marked by the loss, each moving through grief to something beyond. In another, a young Chinese woman prepares to leave for Canada, where she will study medicine; meanwhile, a young Canadian man is involved in his own preparation for medical school. The inevitability of their meeting is obvious; the question is whether they will recognize the necessity of their connection. In the title story, the unsung are honoured by two friends who strive to maintain their bond through the years, the deaths of the would-be-forgotten character actors thrown into relief against the backdrop of their own lives.