Signs of Passing
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More About This Title Signs of Passing
- English
English
Winner of the Pacific Book Award for Short Fiction!
What convinces us that we have been wrong about the world? When do we know that the usual ways are no longer working; that it is time to set down one life and pick up another?, Signs of Passing presents ten stories told from the nearside of epiphany, less a time or place than a state of mind in which one can hear the voice calling from beyond the veil of conscious understanding and singing of how life can be better.
•A young boy, abandoned by divorce, discovers something inexplicable happening in the two-dimensional world of Winchester County, his favorite TV western;
•A waitress at a bar called “The Office”, so alienated from the tedium of her own existence she no longer feels any fear walking home at night in the dark when perhaps she should;
•A crime detective novelist so beset by writer’s block that he attends the funerals of strangers in hopes of gleaning some advice from the dead, unaware that he is being followed;
•A young and secretly talented widow struck by the revelation that her late husband was not the man she thought she had married;
•A homeless, rural bus driver forced to confront the possibility that the dreams keeping him alive have been too small for him and that it is better to embrace peril in risking everything for a better life than to live safely in a prison of the familiar;
•A squared-away child psychiatrist forced to confront the reality that one of his immature patients and an erotic dancer know more than he does about the fraud of his own existence and the excruciating secret to happiness;
•An assistant veterinarian for a small-town zoo who, unbeknownst to her undeniably perfect husband, has taken to following random strangers around the city as a way of escaping both her guilt and her contentment;
•A young photojournalist surrendering herself to the control of a brutish and degenerate winemaker, all to exorcise a past that will not let her go and that holds all love at bay;
•A shopping mall employee whose enmity for a local television meteorologist is rewarded with an unlikely opportunity for revenge; and
•An entertainment media mogul, stricken with sudden news of cancer as he battles in court to retain the rights to remake an old television western about a better life in Winchester County.
A collection of separate stories about interconnected characters, Signs of Passing is devoted to the experience of waking up—of recognizing the better life in all of its unlikely disguises—and then summoning the courage to leave everything else behind, and to give chase before it’s too late.
What convinces us that we have been wrong about the world? When do we know that the usual ways are no longer working; that it is time to set down one life and pick up another?, Signs of Passing presents ten stories told from the nearside of epiphany, less a time or place than a state of mind in which one can hear the voice calling from beyond the veil of conscious understanding and singing of how life can be better.
•A young boy, abandoned by divorce, discovers something inexplicable happening in the two-dimensional world of Winchester County, his favorite TV western;
•A waitress at a bar called “The Office”, so alienated from the tedium of her own existence she no longer feels any fear walking home at night in the dark when perhaps she should;
•A crime detective novelist so beset by writer’s block that he attends the funerals of strangers in hopes of gleaning some advice from the dead, unaware that he is being followed;
•A young and secretly talented widow struck by the revelation that her late husband was not the man she thought she had married;
•A homeless, rural bus driver forced to confront the possibility that the dreams keeping him alive have been too small for him and that it is better to embrace peril in risking everything for a better life than to live safely in a prison of the familiar;
•A squared-away child psychiatrist forced to confront the reality that one of his immature patients and an erotic dancer know more than he does about the fraud of his own existence and the excruciating secret to happiness;
•An assistant veterinarian for a small-town zoo who, unbeknownst to her undeniably perfect husband, has taken to following random strangers around the city as a way of escaping both her guilt and her contentment;
•A young photojournalist surrendering herself to the control of a brutish and degenerate winemaker, all to exorcise a past that will not let her go and that holds all love at bay;
•A shopping mall employee whose enmity for a local television meteorologist is rewarded with an unlikely opportunity for revenge; and
•An entertainment media mogul, stricken with sudden news of cancer as he battles in court to retain the rights to remake an old television western about a better life in Winchester County.
A collection of separate stories about interconnected characters, Signs of Passing is devoted to the experience of waking up—of recognizing the better life in all of its unlikely disguises—and then summoning the courage to leave everything else behind, and to give chase before it’s too late.
- English
English
Owen Thomas is a life-long Alaskan and avid reader. He has written three novels: "The Lion Trees" (which has garnered over sixteen international book awards, including the Amazon Kindle Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Book and Author Book of the Year, the Beverly Hills International Book Award and, most recently, a finalist for the 2020 Book Excellence Award); "Signs of Passing" (a book of interconnected short stories, and winner of fourteen book awards, including the 2014 Pacific Book Awards for Short Fiction, also named one of the 100 Most Notable Books of 2015 by Shelf Unbound Magazine); and "Lying Under Comets: A Love Story of Passion, Murder, Snacks and Graffiti." Owen maintains an active fiction and photography blog on Facebook, Tumblr and on his author website at owenthomasfiction.com.
- English
English
Part One
Chapter One – Winchester County
Chapter Two – The Office
Chapter Three – Jimmy D’s Thrive-n-Dine
Chapter Four – Still Life
Chapter Five – The Number 6
Part Two
Chapter Six – Next (“The Cages”)
Chapter Seven – Shoreline Drive
Chapter Eight - Photophobia
Chapter Nine – Precipitation Likely, Chance of Sun (“The Might and the Will”)
Chapter Ten – A Better Place (“The Calling”)
Bruegel, Williams, Matisse and Icarus: An Interpretive Note to Still Life
About the Author
Chapter One – Winchester County
Chapter Two – The Office
Chapter Three – Jimmy D’s Thrive-n-Dine
Chapter Four – Still Life
Chapter Five – The Number 6
Part Two
Chapter Six – Next (“The Cages”)
Chapter Seven – Shoreline Drive
Chapter Eight - Photophobia
Chapter Nine – Precipitation Likely, Chance of Sun (“The Might and the Will”)
Chapter Ten – A Better Place (“The Calling”)
Bruegel, Williams, Matisse and Icarus: An Interpretive Note to Still Life
About the Author
- English
English
SIGNS OF PASSING is a collection of loosely connected short stories, in which Owen Thomas' eclectic group of characters interact and influence each other in subtle ways, often without knowing it.
Throughout this collection, Thomas explores the universal human longing for a new or better life. In the opening story, "Winchester County," a young boy from a broken home dreams of living in the world of his favorite TV show. In the aptly named "Still Life," a young woman who lost her husband in the war struggles to break free from her grief until something terrible about her deceased spouse's past is accidentally revealed. In "Shoreline Drive," a psychiatrist named Peter who seems to have everything grapples with his desire for more, as well as his need to hold tight to what he already has. The main characters in SIGNS OF PASSING come from vastly different positions in life--whether it's wealth or poverty, isolation or surrounded by family, etc.--but they all yearn to escape the confines of their current existence. Of course, the thematic similarities occasionally make it easy to see certain plot developments coming, but this collection still contains more than its share of surprises.
Thomas' fully-realized characters are what make SIGNS OF PASSING a truly enjoyable work of fiction. As with a troubled friend, their actions often seem questionable, but it is rarely difficult to empathize with them, even when it becomes apparent that they are heading down a dangerous path. Thomas' poignant descriptions of those characters also helps considerably. For example, in "Shoreline Drive" Thomas offers this description of a friend of Peter's wife who lost her husband and son in an accident a few years before: "Ellen, suddenly, in his doorway, was an attractive, forty-six year old widow who appeared to have conquered the demons that had occupied her for the past year and a half. Her eyes, once hollow black sockets, ringed and ragged with deprivation, had become soft and hazel and responsive to his every word." While this is ostensibly just a simply description of Ellen, this sentence effectively pulls double duty, as it actually says much more about Peter's perception of her and shines some light on his conflicted state.
4.5 STARS! "SIGNS OF PASSING" is a thoughtful and evocative collection of short stories full of memorable characters.
-- Indie Reader
Throughout this collection, Thomas explores the universal human longing for a new or better life. In the opening story, "Winchester County," a young boy from a broken home dreams of living in the world of his favorite TV show. In the aptly named "Still Life," a young woman who lost her husband in the war struggles to break free from her grief until something terrible about her deceased spouse's past is accidentally revealed. In "Shoreline Drive," a psychiatrist named Peter who seems to have everything grapples with his desire for more, as well as his need to hold tight to what he already has. The main characters in SIGNS OF PASSING come from vastly different positions in life--whether it's wealth or poverty, isolation or surrounded by family, etc.--but they all yearn to escape the confines of their current existence. Of course, the thematic similarities occasionally make it easy to see certain plot developments coming, but this collection still contains more than its share of surprises.
Thomas' fully-realized characters are what make SIGNS OF PASSING a truly enjoyable work of fiction. As with a troubled friend, their actions often seem questionable, but it is rarely difficult to empathize with them, even when it becomes apparent that they are heading down a dangerous path. Thomas' poignant descriptions of those characters also helps considerably. For example, in "Shoreline Drive" Thomas offers this description of a friend of Peter's wife who lost her husband and son in an accident a few years before: "Ellen, suddenly, in his doorway, was an attractive, forty-six year old widow who appeared to have conquered the demons that had occupied her for the past year and a half. Her eyes, once hollow black sockets, ringed and ragged with deprivation, had become soft and hazel and responsive to his every word." While this is ostensibly just a simply description of Ellen, this sentence effectively pulls double duty, as it actually says much more about Peter's perception of her and shines some light on his conflicted state.
4.5 STARS! "SIGNS OF PASSING" is a thoughtful and evocative collection of short stories full of memorable characters.
-- Indie Reader
