Perfume & Cigarettes: 5 stories
About
In these five stories, a reporter freaks out about a new hire who reminds him too much of himself. A son visiting his mother in a nursing home is crushed by her cryptic visions. An office worker fantasizes about murdering his co-workers. An old woman who disdains her family pays a price. A young man who hates his father is devastated to learn he was wrong.
Praise for this book
collection of contemporary short stories with some touches of magic realism...Crane produces spot-on descriptions like that of an old man’s body that was “as thin and shapeless as a can of Pringles” and clever turns of phrase such as “[h]e’d learned to live with it, the way people learn to live with leprosy or a criminal record”...Tales like “The Little Flower of the Newsroom”, with its clever title and unexpected conclusion, and the haunting glimpse into the mind of a mass murderer in “The Last Day is Better than the First” make this slim volume of literary gems worthy of further exploration.
“Crane has a bloodhound’s sense for story, a lapidary’s skill with sentences, and a wicked sense of emotional surprise. Reading these stories right after another is like a daisy chain of brilliance.”