Provocative, powerful, and intense…
Award-winning Ted Morrissey’s latest, a collection of stories and sonnets, traces his literary journey over four decades. There are tiny joys, desolation, grief, poignant heartbreaks, uncertain future, longing, life, death, and war. Some stories are extremely short, barely a page in length (“Cougars in the Hills,” “Watching Close”) whereas others cover quite a large portion of the narrative (“Figures in Blue”). But all of them have one common theme: human drama: authentic characters struggle with their individual burdens and desires, creating complex stories with plenty of intriguing, reflecting, and bittersweet twists. “Vox Humana” (a veteran struggling with PTSD finds escape in the quietness of his sister’s home only to leave it suddenly after he realizes the quiet, he is craving is out of his reach) and “The Cold Dark March to Winter,” (a teacher falls in love with her student) a part of “Crowsong Stories,” can be read both in the context of a larger story or as standalone short stories. In “Chinkó,” a despairing man finds purpose in someone else’s grief. In suspenseful and tense, “Melvill in the Marquesas,” two men land up in a wild country and find they are in for a real surprise. “Cougars in the Hills’” explores the worthlessness of wildlife in human eyes. In “Watching Close,” a young boy is left traumatized after witnessing a tragic event. The fourth and the final section, “Laertes Sonnet Sequence,” written in apostrophe to Morrissey’s father, consists of Petrarchan sonnets, with strong narrative threads. Morrissey’s storytelling is immersive as he digs deeper into the inner world of his multifaceted characters, delving into their fears, insecurities, doubts, traumas, longing, and desires. Deeply absorbing, thought-provoking, and bittersweet.
Delta of Cassiopeia
Ted Morrissey
Twelve Winters Press
Pub date January 27, 2023
ISBN 978-1733194990
Price $36.99 (USD) Paperback, $0.00 Kindle edition