La Douleur Exquise

By Angela Perea

la douleur exquise: the “heart-wrenching pain of wanting the affection of someone unattainable.” In la douleur exquise, Angela Perea presents a darkly compelling collection of short stories about this exquisite pain, even if that unattainable someone exists only in our own minds, hearts, and souls.

In "Auctioning Salvation," a Macbethian woman invests her lonesome libido in a strawberry pie only to discover she focused all her energy on the wrong dessert. In "Dean Rossi," an aging teacher finds himself in an awkward position as he tries to ward off his age-less lust. "Foodies" shows us a mother risking her sanity by investing her need for her son’s love in a pea. A lost young man tries to recreate the love of his long-lost mother through song and flesh in the story "Beauty Black." A flash-fiction story, The Rat," gives the reader a glimpse into the endless cycle involved in finding romantic love, while in "Arrogance" an innocent bystander is distracted by his own lust before a single shot rings out and makes the struggle between men and women perfectly clear. In "Sid and Leigh's Barbeauty Shop," an old married couple try to spice up desire but employ completely different tactics. The collection finishes with "The Kill," a haunting tale in which a homeless man and a young girl experience a moment of affection that makes the idea of dying livable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dead Key Publishing
• Release date: Feb 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311402790

Angela Perea

Angela began writing short stories in junior high, distributing pages to classmates during recess of her risqué tale of stolen kisses and heavy breathing set against the backdrop of a high school dance and Madonna’s “Crazy for You. ” This cemented her love of the short story and fiction in general. She believes that all great writers were first great readers, and spends much of her reading life studying the masters: Nabokov, Faulkner, Woolf, Lawrence, Updike and Bradbury.Angela received a Creative Writing degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver where she received several awards for her short fiction and poetry. It was while in college that she and a group of fellow students started making short films. Sorry Face Film Productions was formed and the group found local success in the Denver independent film scene. Wanting to explore her own voice in film, she broke away from Sorry Face Productions and started Holy Carp! Films with cinematographer Jeremie Janzen. Holy Carp! Films continues to contribute to the Denver independent film scene.Angela lives in Colorado with her husband and two cats, Jack and Apple. She loves her day job with Denver Public Schools as an administrator for the Early Education Department helping Denver’s youngest learners succeed. She has three grown daughters who ground her and remind her of what’s important.

Book preview

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