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Famous Last Meals
Famous Last Meals
Famous Last Meals
Ebook281 pages4 hours

Famous Last Meals

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Famous Last Meals is a trio of contemporary novellas about the roles we play in an age when everyone is an actor. The curtain opens on “Candidates,” a gentle satire starring a recent university grad who knows and cares little about politics but who finds himself working as a summer intern on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. “Famous Last Meals” examines two couples and their complex relationship as they re-enact the final repasts of famous people who died before the age of 30. “The Woman in the Vineyard” completes the triptych with a compulsive story about literary jealousy and the danger of becoming lost in the labyrinth of another writer’s sources.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 4, 2015
ISBN9781927855188
Famous Last Meals
Author

Richard Cumyn

Richard Cumyn was born in Ottawa and has degrees in English and Education from Queen's University. He is fiction editor for The Antigonish Review and has published four collections of short fiction: The Limit of Delta Y over Delta X, I Am Not Most Places, Viking Brides, and The Obstacle Course. Cumyn's short stories have appeared in many Canadian literary publications. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Richard Cumyn's genius for placing his characters in odd or uncomfortable or morally ambiguous situations to great comic and dramatic effect is on fine display in his latest book, a collection of three novellas. In "Candidates" recent university graduate Adam Lerner lands a research job with the Prime Minister's Office, the parameters of which are hazy and become hazier as things go along. Adam, an innocent and not the most observant of individuals, is constantly being blindsided by people who seem to know before he does where he's going to be and what he's going to do. Adam's career ambitions and political affiliations are fuzzy at best, and so it is no small irony that he finds himself the target of other people's political aspirations, to the point where he is being pressured into running for office himself. The title story, "Famous Last Meals," chronicles the complex friendship of two couples--Colin & Beth, Max & Chandra--who meet on a semi-regular basis to re-enact the last meal of a famous person. Colin, the narrator, also recounts an early relationship with a dancer named Jane, who seems to have found freedom in pushing her body past the limits of its endurance. And "The Woman in the Vineyard" describes a case of literary jealousy in which the narcissistic writer/narrator, disappointed with how little attention his own works have received, becomes obsessed with the popular prize-winning novels of a former protégé named Troyer, to the point where he makes plans to visit the scene of the younger man's latest novel in order to prove that Troyer is a fraud. The prevalent tone here is one of regret. People are scrutinizing their lives, questioning the past, wondering where they fell short and how they ended up where they are. The stories are filled with betrayals and people turning against and disappointing and confounding one another. Cumyn's characters are often not what they seem, or even what they think they are—and certainly not what they profess to be. As in his earlier works the prose is polished and fluent, filled with apt and pertinent references, wry observations and felicitous turns of phrase. These are densely written, leisurely paced fictions; no doubt they would have benefited from some judicious pruning and tightening. But regardless, Famous Last Meals is a welcome addition to Richard Cumyn's oeuvre and adds fuel to the argument that he is among the best writers of short (and medium length) fiction working today.

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Famous Last Meals - Richard Cumyn

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