The Rainbow Man

by David Gardiner

25 short stories from the pen of a world-wandering expat Irishman. "...without exception all ... of the stories, exploring life both familiar and unfamiliar, leave the reader with something to think about, and linger in the mind long after the final page is turned." The Irish Emigrant "James Joyce meets Ray Bradbury in David Gardiner's collection of tales wrapped in the imaginings of children who hear a Cassandra/Wandering Jew-type sage mutter such things as 'Ye know the trouble with youse northerners, your memories is too bloody long!' "...It always rains in Ireland, from the foreboding drizzle of 'The Lies of Sleeping Dogs' to the cleansing downpour that enables the Galahad-esque Benny of 'Hand of God' to save a young Muslim woman fleeing an arranged marriage. "...as the war criminal of 'Letting Go' asks,'That's all you want of me? The truth? A small thing like that?'" MyShelf.com "David's central voice is that of The Rainbow Man himself, his words weave through the fabric of each perfectly crafted and provocative story like that of a harbinger from another dimension or a superior being which, by its own divinity, knows how things really are. There is warning in his voice, wisdom and an almost gleeful, riddling prophecy as if from the mouths of babes themselves." Chris Williams, Tregolwyn Book Reviews You pick up this book with its charming exterior thinking you are going to read a collection of equally charming short stories, seasoned perhaps with a little grit to raise it above the tame, but what you actually get are jawdropping vignettes of the sort of lives only a writer of David's calibre could relate with such vivid and at times disturbing realism, and all this whilst at the same time managing to avoid the usual, the jaded and the hackneyed to ensnare your attention. Nothing is as it seems and the more mundane the surface, the more layers there appear to be; we are talking about a true literary onion here, multi-layered and quite able to bring tears to your eyes.In their way, short stories are the hardest of all genres to write, for it is in the very economy of words that volumes are spoken. David is masterful with his word budget; he can induce more impact, chill the blood and widen more eyes in half a dozen pages than some authors could ever dream of doing with 30,000 words. It is a gift, and one rarely offered to the reading public in this Godforsaken age of heinous, ghost written, celebrity dross which is laughably called literature, and the steady, gentle voice of a true storyteller is often sadly too hard to hear with any clarity over the cackling of a cash-fuelled mediocrity. But when you hear it, you will hear a voice which will remain inside your imagination long after the book is closed, set aside, and that whatshisname mediocrity has grown too unlovely for the public at large. Binnacle Press Book of the Month Review © copyright 2004 Binnacle Press

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2004