Old Man Evil

Old Man Evil is a collection of 12 stories, six of which take place in contemporary America while the other five transpire abroad. The flagship story, in which a suburban refugee finds himself in a New Mexican shantytown among derelicts and eccentrics, examines the quiet damage inflicted by social conventions. Backlighting the action is the millennia-distant afterglow of Sodom and Gomorrah. Set to Rebetika music, " Pub Blues" is an exploration of marriage and middle age that takes place in urban New Jersey. " Chele Kula" dramatizes the struggle against imperialism during the Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1809. " Straightsville" tests the depth of a suburban heterosexual's acceptance of gay men. " Hamlet's Ghost Sighted in Frontenac, KS," in which a mixed-blood Hopi wonders whether his uncle killed his father, takes place in a single hallucinogenic night fueled by cocaine. " Tolstoy's Kunak" revolves around the friendship that formed between the Russian author and a young Chechen during the Russo-Caucasian Wars. " Mengele's Gypsy," is based on the documented relationship between Josef Mengele and a four-year-old Gypsy boy imprisoned in Auschwitz.