Subversive, edgy, and wildly entertaining, this short story collection
is a unique encounter with fiction in Leon Rooke's characteristic style
as he peels back the skin of social convention and embraces the chaos of
life with characters and themes as unpredictable as an assassin who
murders the words in your memory; Egi Balducchi who is either a
recording angel or a mad old man with a wheelbarrow; Eli's daughter,
Frannie, who may just be a gentle two-bit hooker, or the Virgin herself;
and is that really God, shrugging off insults from Isaac Babel and Guy
de Maupassant? Then there is Lap the Dog who escapes gunshot and poison,
and heads cross-country to find the human survivors; a glimpse into the
life of Joyce Carol Oates; the philosopher Heidegger in a fight with
Hannah Arendt; the Indian Chief who is denied his professorship at Yale
when he turns up for the ceremony with a black princess on his arm; and
more... Wide World in Celebration and Sorrow is an evocative short story
collection that is wild with laughter, confronting pathos, rage and
humour in ways that only Rooke's writing could approach.