The Dancing Mice.

by John Patrick

The setting is a laundromat in a poorer section of a large city, a gathering place for the diverse characters who live in the neighborhood. As these very different people come in contact, a wide range of human experience is revealed, as are the fears and tensions which so often drive us apart even when compassion and understanding are so sorely needed. In the course of the action there are poignant "memory sequences" which probe into the secret thoughts of the individual characters and which are contrasted against the moments of violence, intrigue, romance, comedy and pathos which are the stuff of their real lives. In the end there is also death, but, with this, an awareness of the resilient humanity and sense of hope which reside in all men and which, ultimately, must provide the ways to redemption and a better life.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Patrick Goggin was an American playwright and screenwriter.
Abandoned by his parents, he had a delinquent youth that he spend in foster homes and boarding schools. He married at 19 and got a job as an announcer at KPO Radio in San Francisco, California. After being a scriptwriter for the radio program Cecil and Sally he began writing screenplays, and later he turned to writing screenplays.
On November 7, 1995 he committed suicide.