Abstract

Selected Stories is a collection of stories about solitary drifters and domestic disasters, failed relationships and failed dreams. It responds to humanist notions of agency which link insight and change, often considered the motors of narrative. The characters in these stories are everyday losers haunted by the desire to break free of their natures and alter their circumstances. Their actions bring change, but too often the “insights” driving these actions are illusory, and the changes are unexpected and undesirable. Genuine insights, when they occur, are messy and half-formed, and defy the characters’ attempts to articulate them or apply them to their actions. The limited, often unreliable, access given to the characters' thoughts and motivations reflects their inability to perceive their lives as coherent narratives.