License and Application: Examining Truth in Gray Area Fiction

Abstract

The following collection of short stories, while built upon a foundation of real personal experiences, purport to examine the world through a lens that fuses the genres of fiction and nonfiction. Less about the me and more about the we, the stories collected here examine the world through a narrative voice not easily categorized into the traditional genres of literature. The narrative perspective is always oscillating and instable, wavering at times between tightly focused introspective characters, and seemingly mundane objects otherwise buried in the background, the result of which is often unsettling and humorous. The introduction to the collection examines the author's influences concerning this vacillating perspective, as well as it critically analyzes the ways other writers have influenced his mode of developing characters, employment of dialog, and interpretation and conveyance of what he refers to as the gray truth. The collection ranges in its depictions of truth - beginning with more traditionally pure fiction in "The Butcher Shop" to the largely autobiographical "Fred and Adam."