Earthbound: Short Stories

by Kenneth Radu

With surgical precision and understated humour, in Earthbound Kenneth Radu once again demonstrates his remarkable ability to portray ordinary people in sometimes extraordinary circumstances. Whether it's the story of an old woman who has given birth, or a professor grieving over the death of his child, or a porn shop owner fighting off the financial predations of his brother, or a wheel-chair bound woman terrified by a voyeur, these stories collectively dramatize the conflict between personal wishes and the hard facts of reality. As the title story suggests, what we dream or think about ourselves may well be pulled down to earth, sometimes with a thud, by the gravitational energy of emotion, relationships, unexpected events and inescapable truth. As in his previous collection, Sex in Russia, the stories in Earthbound, are all are imbued with Radu's subtle irony, deft descriptions, acute insight, and compassion for his characters.

150 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2012

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Earthbound Kenneth Radu has produced another satisfying collection of short fiction. Narrated in precise language and with an eye for detail, these stories focus mostly upon people in direct conflict with their circumstances or one another--a practical-minded son whose father is obsessed with conspiracy theories and extraterrestrial visitation, a porn-shop owner whose shiftless brother is constantly criticizing him on moral grounds while badgering him for money, a widow of strong religious convictions who lusts after her crippled neighbor's husband. These are stories set mostly in the here and now that expose the gap between where we are and where we want to be. Radu's favorite character is not male or female, young or old, black or white, but one struggling to reconcile or rationalize the gap between dream and reality. This is compelling short fiction from a seasoned writer and well worth seeking out.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all faced with situations in our life that shatters and upsets our core beliefs. A event or a circumstance occurs and we are stunned to our inner psyches trying to figure out how to deal with it. It is a common occurrence in the human condition and Kenneth Radu writes about those situations in a terrific manner in his collection of short stories called Earthbound.
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