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SHORT FICTION
by Douglas Fenn Wilson
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Each story in this collection
uses a well known painting as a point of departure. Characters
inanimate in paint and canvas step briefly out of frames to revisit
poignant life passages. |
| The Savior Piet (1999 / 14
ms. pages) A New York accountant, stalled out in mid-life, finds
in a Mondrian painting inspiration to change his life. (Painting
by Piet Mondrian) |
| Ferrin’s Crossing (2000
/ 20 ms. pages) Ferrin’s autism makes him vulnerable to a
grudge-bearing brother––a life or death struggle in
clear Bahamian waters gone eerily black. (Watercolor by Winslow
Homer) |
| Remembering Green (2000 /
22 ms. pages) Miguel Reinoso, struggling with the complexities of
blindness, attempts suicide when he loses his memory of color, but
finds in his lover’s watercolors an unexpected foothold out
of despair. (Watercolor by John Singer Sargent) |
| Drapes of Snow (2001 / 26
ms. pages) A massage therapist (and part-time portrait artist) finds
herself drawn to a somber and highly sensitized male client––a
burn victim. The catharsis that is their relationship, tender at
first, then explosive, pushes them past their live's sticking points.
(Painting by Velazquez) |
| Luau (2002 / 22 ms. pages)
A backyard luau turns nightmare when ten-year-old Ricky witnesses
his war-haunted grandfather unravel. (Painting by Paul Gauguin) |
| La Puerta (2003 / 22 ms. pages)
A teenage Latino with a penchant for getting high on paint fumes
fights for his life when the drug tunnel he is digging caves in––a
fight that becomes a surreal journey into self, where burgeoning
visions of God and the effects of drugs blur into one. (Painting
by Mark Rothko) |