Product Description
Lesley Choyce writes rings around most Canadian authors. Even so, the most recent of his five books of stories came out in 1988, and most are out of print. It’s time for a new collection and here it is — Dance the Rocks Ashore or, as one might say, choice Choyce. Dance the Rocks Ashore contains substantial new stories including “Dance the Rocks Ashore,” a bittersweet account of an elderly couple’s decline; the hilarious and bizarre “My Father Was a Book Reviewer” “The Third or Fourth Happiest Man in Nova Scotia,*#148 with a peculiar hero reminiscent of Noah; and “The Wreck of the Sister Theresa,*#148 in which spring fever hits like “a handshake in hell.” Favourite stories from previous books include “Losing Ground,” the pivotal chapter in Choyce’s acclaimed 1989 novel The Second Season of Jonas MacPherson,as well as “The Cure,” “Dancing the Night Away,” and the complex and disturbing “Conventional Emotions.”
From the Inside Flap
Dance the Rocks Ashore, a milestone in Lesley Choyce’s leaps-and-bounds career, attests to almost twenty years of continuous inventiveness and craftsmanship in the art of the short story. It’s a powerful mix: 15 of the best stories from seven earlier books, plus four stories so new they’ve never been published until now. The title story, “Dance the Rocks Ashore,” is a bittersweet account of an elderly couple’s decline. “The Third or Fourth Happiest Man in Nova Scotia” features a peculiar hero reminiscent of Noah. In “The Wreck of the Sister Theresa,” spring fever hits like “a handshake in hell.” Fanciful or realistic, poetic or comical, literary or homespun, each story shines with Choyce’s unique take on the world.
