Stabs at Happiness — Todd Grimson

Marking the first original publication by Todd Grimson in almost 20 years, the 13 stories compiled in this volume showcase the author's fascinating fictional canvases, peopled by authentic and sympathetic characters with settings ranging from the Amazon to the Sahara and stops in between to 1970s East Village and pre-Castro Cuba. Whether it's a Hollywood starlet who goes AWOL from her movie set in the wake of her husband's suicide and in disguise embarks anonymously on a hedonistic bender or an African American man seeking the answer behind the mysterious disappearance of his friend in the heart of Muslim North Africa, each individual within these stories is striving to break free, to make new meaning of their world, to find recognition or self-definition in an otherwise bleak and unsympathetic world. Fresh and bold and original in his voice and depiction of character, places, and events, Grimson's range is extraordinary, his imagination is unsurpassable, and his empathy for his characters -- whether killers, transvestites, prostitutes -- are all deeply heartfelt.