Jascha Kessler

Siren Songs & Classical Illusions Jascha Kessler 1st edition

Each of these fifty delightfully wicked ?modern fables? contains a shard of mythology at its core, overlaid with the experiences of contemporary life, like an oyster pearling a grain of sand. From smog-laden Los Angeles skies to icy Adirondack streams, from murderous back alleys in Brooklyn to the hot springs of Taos, New Mexico, Jascha Kessler spins ironic tales of revenge and deception, exile and debasement, accident, fate and survival–all turned by a keen observer of human foibles. Widely published in magazines, and also gathered here from earlier out-of-print collections, these award-winning stories are, to use Saul Bellow's words, ?swift, salty, spare, and first-rate.? A sardonic guide to the classical echoes of the tales is specially appended to this new volume of masterful fiction.