John Manderino
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English
Description
This collection of twenty-six dark but often humorous short stories features a pantheon of disturbed and disturbing characters, human and otherwise. Many of the stories are modern takes on classic monsters crafted with twisted plots and Twilight Zone-esque endings. For example, "Wolfman and Janice" is about a werewolf who is doing the best he can under very trying circumstances, especially when confronted with eating his elderly neighbor's cat. There's...
Author
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English
Description
At forty, Hank has decided he is through with baseball, a routine pop-up fell on his head, and he got the message. The trouble is baseball is the one thing that has given any meaning to his life. This is the painfully funny story of a man who decides to get a life, but is not sure how. It is about fathers and sons, heroes and whiners, the wheel of fortune (and Vanna White), baseball and the decline of Western civilization and why Nellie Fox always...
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English
Description
When Hitchcock's “The Birds” began showing in the summer of 1963 at the Dolton Theater, the starlings of Riverside, Illinois launched their attacks. They were "black, freckled, oily-looking things" with "tiny black buttons for eyes." They carried off Skippy Whalen's baseball cap, pooped on Father Rowley's finger, and attacked a feisty little dog named Tuffy who fought them off. "I blamed Hitchcock" says the author, a Catholic grammar school student...
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It's Saturday, October 27, 1962, the darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two children, Ralph and his little sister Lou are searching for empty bottles in a vacant lot when they discover a rock, which to them, at least looks quite a lot like Jesus. Ralph immediately declares it possible Holy Object. In addition, since his fondest wish is to be a boy-in-a-story, he earnestly places himself and Lounow, his sidekick, in a tale featuring the sacred...
Author
Language
English
Description
In the last column of a job application, there's that tricky question: reason for leaving? John Manderino has apparently had to puzzle over that one often and long. His answers are collected here in this hilarious novel-in-stories tracing the history of a guy trying to grow up job by job. Delivery boy, altar boy, busboy, teacher, cotton picker, umpire, Zen monk-Manderino's protagonist tries on one hat after another, from Chicago to Arizona to a South...
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