In “The Dunning Man”, Connor Ryan is the landlord for several rental properties. This story is interesting because the man’s name is never given and the entire story is told in the 2nd person. Although he is married with two small children, it is evident that his drinking is taking a toll on his marriage and family life. The narrator is clearly the loser of the family and has had to ask his brother to get him out of trouble quite a few times, which has included bribing local authorities to make DWI charges go away. In “Sullapalooza”, a man who is the narrator of the story shows up to his younger brother’s yearly party at his extravagant house. Then he gets a text from this girl saying she can’t make it at the last minute.
While on the train ride to meet her he takes several different kinds of drugs to give him some confidence and then to calm him down. He has recently lost his job so money is tight, but he has just enough to treat her to a nice weekend. In the story entitled “Dead”, a man is desperately trying to catch a bus and then a train to meet his girlfriend in Atlantic City for a romantic evening. Self-medication with various substances, especially alcohol, is the way in which the characters in these stories manage to muddle through their sad lives. The stories in this collection all feature men and women who are stuck in unhappy lives and are just trying to do the best they can to live day to day and survive a rather miserable existence. Today I welcome back TLC Book Tours to The Book Binder’s Daughter with a collection of short stories entitled “The Dunning Man.” I invite you to read my review, learn a bit about the author and enter to win your own copy of the book (US/Can).
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