Entropic

by R.W. Gray

Winner of the 2016 Thomas Raddall
Atlantic Fiction Award at the East Coast Literary Awards!
Shortlisted
for the Book Design Award at the 2016 Alberta Book Publishing
Awards!
Shortlisted for the 2015 New Brunswick Book Awards!

In
this collection of stories, author and filmmaker  R. W. Gray (Crisp) finds
the place where the beautiful, the strange, and the surreal all meet—sometimes
meshing harmoniously, sometimes colliding with terrible violence, launching his
characters into a redefined reality.

A lovestruck man
discovers the secret editing room where his girlfriend erases all her flaws; a
massage artist finds that she has a gift, but is uncertain of the price; a
beautiful man sets out to be done with beauty; and a gay couple meets what
appear to be younger versions of themselves, learning that history can indeed
repeat itself.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

R. W. Gray’s poetry and prose have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. His first collection of short stories, Crisp, was published by NeWest Press. An award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, he has had over ten short films produced. He lives in Fredericton, where he is a professor of film and screenwriting in the English Department at the University of New Brunswick.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title story, "Entropic," evokes the famous Japanese novella, House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories. In "Sleeping Beauties" the beauty is female, that are more than one of them, and we enter the story through the vehicle of an aging man, yearning for youth and beauty.

In "Entropic" (the story), a singularly beautiful young man, sleeping and inert, is visited by many people with a variety of motivations and obsessions. The movie version was released in 2019.

In this short fiction collection as a whole, the language is intense, moving, and challenging. The impact of beauty, yearning, and secrets percolates throughout.

[Kathlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book of short stories I have ever read! Each one capture me until I finished. Unique and diverse!

[b · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great collection, although at times feeling a bit sappy or sentimental for my taste; I am not so interested in beauty as each of the characters in the collection, so it's tough to really connect, but the magical situations and bizarre loneliness keeps everything fresh and surprising. A bit heavy if you're looking for 'short' short stories, but his former collection, 'Crisp,' achieves those sorts of bite-size proportions with similar delivery if you're into that.

[Biljana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entropic is filled with beautiful short stories. Each story (or maybe most?) begins with intricate prose about relatively mundane events, which then takes a swerve towards the unusual or fantastical. Much recommended.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gray’s short stories are wonderfully surreal little glimpses of CanLit perfection. Gray is one of Canada’s best short story writers, bar none. His story “Blink” may be one of my all-time favourites, by any author.

Read more at the Redeblog.

[Natasha Penney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of stories from NB resident and professor R.W. Gray. He creates an interesting emotional vacuum for the characters of this eclectic collection, where the common theme seems to be preoccupation with unsustainable and emotionally unrewarding fixations and longing. Not all of the stories are tremendous, but the balance of the collection is solidly written and two stories in particular are difficult to forget.

[Drillon Kincaid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can only assume these gushing reviews are written by his friends...

Have read six stories, half a seventh and struggling to finish that.

'Canada's best short story writer'. Come on. Seriously? Read more!