The Widows and Orphans Fund (Paperback)

The Widows and Orphans Fund is a collection of stories that presents a cross-section of modern American society through diverse characters in disparate locales. The “heroes” of these tales are male and female, young and old, straight and gay, Jewish and gentile, Caucasian, Latino, and Native American. They struggle in their relationships with lovers, family, friends, and co-workers. They inhabit the cities, suburbs, mountains, forests, and deserts of a multifaceted country that seems simultaneously real and imaginary. In essence, the landscape of this collection is a stage set where characters are subjected to dramatic conflicts between their sometimes contradictory desires as they grope for their independent identities yet hunger for connections to other human beings. This characteristically American dilemma, driven by a cultural myth of the sovereignty of the individual, is illuminated by these characters’ personal stories that, for some, culminate in physical, emotional, or spiritual isolation, while others achieve peace within themselves or communion with others. In the end, the reader comes away with a greater awareness of, and feeling for, a wide variety of experiences related to a fundamental human theme.