Ghost Traps: Stories

Ghost Traps: Stories - Paperback

$25.87
$25.87
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Ghost Traps: Stories
  • Ghost Traps: Stories
Ghost Traps: Stories - Paperback

Ghost Traps: Stories - Paperback

by Robert Abel
$25.87
$25.87

Book Overview

Ghost Traps is a collection of twelve stories about characters who are on the edge and under duress, individuals backed against a wall as they try to free themselves from their own limitations, habits, and destructive desires.

In the title story, Harper learns to fish from a man whose son is "catching hell" in the Korean War. When the son returns, he begins stealing lobsters from Harper's traps, and Harper, out of a sense of obligation and guilt, teaches him to fish, vainly hoping it will help the man put together the pieces of a life that war shattered. In "The Connoisseur," a wealthy collector on an archeological dig in the Himalayan foothills realizes he "knows how to stay out of jail, charge rent, build hotels, and pass Go," but has not spiritual life. Unlike his guide, a Sherpa, who could remain content with nothing but the Himalayas, the collector finds himself wanting in all but material success.

Whether they win or lose, Robert Abel's characters make the best of circumstance with creativity, wit, passion, and endurance. In "Lawless in New York," Professor Alice Reinquist, the sole woman in her university's delegation to an academic conference, maintains her sense of humor by thinking of Wonder Woman's Gold Lasso, which makes "even the most cunning of evildoers unable to prevaricate." Tracey Wynn, a woman who considers herself on loan to her aloof boyfriend, keeps her options open by always leaving a portion of her neck exposed because she "cannot stand being closed in by anything and because she knows it invites at least a fantasy kiss." In "Appetizer," a man fishing in Alaska resourcefully asks two hungry grizzly bears, "How much love can $600 worth of salmon buy?"

Although many of these characters inhabit a world in which the bottom is about to fall out, they invariably find good reason--and courage--to take the next treacherous step. From the salty waters of Cape Cod Canal to the mountains of Tibet; from a Puerto Rican pub to an elegant New York bar where "Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer had no doubt insulted each other," Ghost Traps is filled with people hustling for survival and fighting for identity in a world reluctant to give anyone an even break.
ISBN9780820344911
Author Robert Abel
PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedMarch 2013
LanguageENG- English
Pages168
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

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Ghost Traps: Stories

Ghost Traps: Stories - Paperback

Ghost Traps: Stories - Paperback

By Robert Abel

About Robert Abel

Dr. Robert Abel, Jr., M.D integrates modern medicine, alternative remedies and natural options in order to connect eye care with general health. His mission is to provide the best of eastern and western approaches to health in order to provide people with holistic solutions to eye care and mind-body wellness. Dr. Abel is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received his medical training at Jefferson Medical College. Dr. Abel co-founded the alternative medicine curriculum at Thomas Jefferson University where he is a former clinical professor of ophthalmology. Dr. Abel has performed over 17,000 eye surgeries and helped found three eye banks. He holds patents on artificial corneas and received the senior honor award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) where he helped create the Committee for International Ophthalmology. He has spent 30 years teaching eye surgery courses nationally and has taught eye surgery in many other countries. He practices with Delaware Ophthalmology Consultants, and resides with his wife in Wilmington, Delaware. Visit him at eyeadvisory.com.

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