Follow Here To Purchase The Weight of Deeds: A Collection of 14 Short Stories

Author: Eli Thorpe

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 978-1-4327-8334-1

From reading the back cover of The Weight of Deeds: A collection of 14 Short Stories, you might get the feeling that Eli Thorpe is a jack of all trades, except that after savoring this most recent work, I have to concede that he certainly has mastered one-the art of writing the short story.

In this latest endeavor, Thorpe illustrates his sensitive eye and excellent ear as he presents his readers with fourteen short stories to be dipped into for their keen observant qualities. All are written freely and informally with a great deal of lucidity, striving to make some sense of various human situations and conditions. Although some readers may label a few of these stories dispiriting, this would only short change the work of an articulate writer that certainly has come a long way since his debut novel I reviewed, The Valley of the Ashes.

What I found especially noteworthy is that Thorpe has a knack of leaving nothing in the smallest way untidy or out-of -place, presenting his readers with painful illuminations, which, however, always seem to be moving ahead. This is particularly in evidence with Mountain Echoes where hatred and jealousy come to the fore and unfortunately lead to bitter consequences.

Thorpe's varied subjects are all distinguished by their intensity of treatment, as with his depiction of drifters and transients that seem to reappear regularly. However, and what penetrates, is what lies beneath the surface of these stories and, no doubt, readers will detect different things, or perhaps see recognizable qualities differently in re-reading Thorpe's narratives.

To illustrate, No Questions is a study of double-barreled attitudes pertaining to adultery. How willing would you be to take back your wife if you discovered she was cheating on you? It is here where one of the characters casually asks his friend, who is faced with this predicament concerning his unfaithful girlfriend, “Is she taking your money, spending it on stuff she doesn't tell you about? Running up credit cards and cleaning out the bank account?” And when the friend replies, “nothing like that,” the other confides that it has happened to him and where did it get him? He muses, why didn't he just leave it alone? After all, it was he who was away two months out of three, how could you blame his lonely wife, and what is the big deal if she had a fling, which, as he states, was nothing serious? All it got him was a divorce, custody of his kids only on weekends and vacations, and every other holiday. In addition, he is obliged to pay child support and alimony. Was the trade-off worth it? No doubt something to think about, provided you accept this rationalization and reasoning? By the way, the ending of this short story comes as quite a surprise and will no doubt throw you for a loop-something you didn't see coming.

Another gift that Thorpe displays is his ability to effectively convey through his carefully drawn characters how human beings in their attitudes and behavior look, feel and sound. A perfect example is The Waiting Room, where two brothers await the doctor's pronouncement concerning their brother who has just suffered a heart attack. And it is also within this setting where these two brothers must come to terms with their past disconnect and adversary behavior towards each other.

Equally important is that much of Thorpe's writing is filled with a great deal of energy. His dialogue emanates from characters that are often unsure, unsafe, temperamental, shifty, restless, emotional, passionate, however, all are unique to themselves and by the same token, identifiable, capturing our attention for the revelation of their social conditions and secret lives. All seem to grapple with difficult issues that readers can relate to and we can't help notice their potency. For this reason, and as Thorpe wisely mentions in his Author's Note: “Allow time to let one story sink in and have its effect on you before beginning another.”

Click Here To Read Norm's Interview With Eli Thorpe