17 very short stories by the author of Without Wax, Questionstruck, and Ampersand, Mass.
About This Book
Over and over while reading Pathologies I had the same reaction. I read a story and thought, “Ha ha, that’s funny,” and felt like I’d got the point. Then I finished the story and thought, “Hang on, that’s more than just funny…,” and reread it to enjoy the many layers Walsh packs into each very short piece. These stories read quickly, giving the illusion of easy understanding, but they become more complex and subtle as you read. Most are pared-down portraits of characters, honing in on their strangest quirks not to reduce them to laughingstocks but to make them more nuanced than those quirks at first seem to allow. I was reminded of Gary Lutz’ fiction in how powerfully they get to the heart of a character, and have a “simple” surface that belies the complexity beneath. But rather than the skewed syntax of Lutz, the stories in Pathologies accomplish this by offering precisely the right detail at precisely the right time.
-Steve Himmer, author of The Bee-Loud Glade
The William Walsh does humor, pop culture and sex as well as anyone in this collection, but one thing I am always struck by regardless of what I’m reading of his, is Walsh’s almost restless curiosity, which always seems to pop off the page, all fertile, authentic and vibrant.
-Ben Tanzer, author of You Can Make Him Like You
William Walsh’s Pathologies has introduced me to yet another terrific practitioner of the wry and ironic brand of flash fiction. This is a consistently inventive and witty collection which ended all too soon. Walsh and the folks at Keyhole Press have a real winner here.
-Andy Linkner
