
IDWRITERS / PC
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People from Bloomington
Written by Peter Gordon, originally published in Asian Review of Books
Apr 10, 2022
People from Bloomington
Written by Peter Gordon, originally published in Asian Review of Books
Apr 10, 2022
People from Bloomington is, true to its name, a collection of stories about various people in the American Midwest—in the university town of Bloomington, Indiana to be precise—set in the late 1970s. As examples of the craft of short story writing, these will do nicely: each is well-constructed and plotted, with distinctive characterization and more than enough tension to get the reader through to the end.
The author is known for absurdist fiction; a great deal of that feeling remains in this collection. The protagonists—first-person narrators all—while entirely believable, are disturbed: each suffers from social isolation and is socially maladroit; each is observant to a fault and displays an unhealthy obsession with one or more of the other characters and prey to at least an overactive imagination if not downright paranoia. They snoop from windows and from across yards.
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