Benefit Road: Short Stories

Benefit Road is a work of realistic fiction composed of six short stories. Each protagonist is an individual in contemporary society, living an isolated existence, while struggling to connect with others and construct moral order out of chaos. A blind disabled child attended by his uncomplaining mother, geckos scrambling up a freshly painted wall to escape from a cat, a drowning boy, the revelry of a Fasching celebration, a toddler in a crib shrieking for his mother's attention, and an old dog on a wintry trail: A common thread linking these particular stories is the presence of an animal as a stand-in for absent or lacking human relationships. The predominant mood is one of resignation to the fact that life lived alone is a continuing struggle. Epiphanies highlight the recognition that connections and relationships present the only possibility of resolution.