Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets, by Jacob M Appel
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Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets, by Jacob M Appel
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A magician's parrot recommends against donating a kidney to his girlfriend. Inside an antique grandfather clock, a dying child explores Ancient Athens. Rural Virginia is swept by an epidemic of human resurrections. An alien disguised as a Latvian chef opens unwittingly his restaurant opposite an abortion clinic. Jacob M. Appel's Miracles and Conundrums takes us to a world of hope and desperation, where everything is possible, but so much seems far beyond reach.
Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets, by Jacob M Appel - Amazon Sales Rank: #502930 in Books
- Published on: 2015-06-30
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x 5.50" w x .50" l, .69 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 155 pages
Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets, by Jacob M Appel Review "A fine collection of memorable stories with a delicately surreal edge."--KIRKUS REVIEW (starred review)"Engaging, surprising, and often deeply affecting..."--Jason Hess, New Pages"A superb collection. These eight stories by Jacob Appel are beautifully crafted, rich in ideas, wit and compassion. The author's talents are various and so are the effects they produce--the interplay of light and dark radiates from every page....These stories can be wise and playful at the same time. And sometimes they can also break your heart."--Lucy Rosenthal, author of The World of Rae English"Appel presents a cast of characters worthy of his quirky title. Among them Red Ziggy, a restaurateur from a distant planet who opens Birmingham, Alabama's only Latvian eatery, and Happy Gallows, a widower with granddaughter who advertises in the newspaper for 'housekeeping and discourse.' The topics are weighty--abortion, climate change, cancer--but the touch light enough to make you wonder whether you're reading miracles and conundrums of this world or some other. An intriguing read"--George Harrar, author of Reunion at Red Paint Bay
About the Author Jacob M. Appel is a physician, attorney and bioethicist based in New York City. He is the author of more than two hundred published short stories and is a past winner of the Boston Review Short Fiction Competition, the William Faulkner- William Wisdom Award for the Short Story, the Dana Award, the Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction, the North American Review's Kurt Vonnegut Prize, the Missouri Review's Editor's Prize, the Sycamore Review's Wabash Prize, the Briar Cliff Review's Short Fiction Prize, the H. E. Francis Prize, the New Millennium Writings Fiction Award in four different years, an Elizabeth George Fellowship and a Sherwood Anderson Foundation Writers Grant. His stories have been short-listed for the O. Henry Award, Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best American Mystery Stories, and the Pushcart Prize anthology on numerous occasions. His first novel, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the Dundee International Book Prize in 2012. His second novel, second novel, The Biology of Luck, was short-listed for the Hoffer Society's Montaigne Medal acob holds graduate degrees from Brown University, Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Law School, New York University's MFA program in fiction and Albany Medical College's Alden March Institute of Bioethics. He taught for many years at Brown University and currently teaches at the Gotham Writers' Workshop and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. These moving, quirky stories really pack a punch. Why isn't Jacob Appel more well-known? By Larry Hoffer You know when you read a book by an author you've never heard of before, and you love it so much, but when you read another book by the same person you're disappointed? I was utterly captivated by Jacob Appel's quirky, moving story collection, Einstein's Beach House, but I wondered if Appel's charm would be apparent in his newest collection, Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets, or whether the quirkiness would become cloying.I'm pleased to say that this new collection is equally as good, and that once again, I am so dazzled by Appel's talent. These stories are unlike many I've read, but they're not outlandish; each is full of so much heart and emotion and incredibly unforgettable characters. This is a brief but powerful collection that left me wanting more.Some of my favorite stories in the collection include "Invasive Species," in which a woman struggles with the impending death of her young daughter, and tries to decide whether the romantic attention of her next-door neighbor is a good thing; "Phoebe with Impending Frost," which follows an expert in climate change as he tries to deal with the return of his high school crush amidst a true climate crisis; "The Resurrection Bakeoff," in which a man is worried that one of his darkest secrets will be revealed to his wife before she dies; and "Measures of Sorrow," about a graduate student who teaches a cab driver about everything he knows so he can woo a woman he's attracted to. And then there's the amazing title story, in which an alien masquerading as a Latvian immigrant in Birmingham, Alabama, keeps the peace between pro-life and pro-choice advocates—and finds himself falling in love.I don't know why Jacob Appel isn't a household name, because the way he writes, the way he weaves emotion and humor and heart and makes you think, deserves more recognition. These stories pack a punch, and will stick in your mind, and you'll want to tell everyone you know about them.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Another great book from Dr. Appel! By Carlos T. Mock Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets by Jacob M. AppelThis book contains a collections of eight short stories that are not only eccentric, but also, quite entertaining.Dr. Appel starts us with the title short story: Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets, in which Zigfrids (Red Ziggy) Imants Lenc is sent from his home planet to "survey" Earth. Ziggy assumes a Latvian identity and opens a Latvian Cafe; Cafe Riga in the middle of Lummings Alabama right next to the only abortion clinic in town. He divides his customers into two sides: pro and anti choice. It all goes well until one day, Erin Gwench, of Saint Agatha's College in Creve Coeur, R I., sits at his cafe. Because Ziggy has been impartial, Erin gives Ziggy a book to read: Life: Miracle and Conundrum. One thing leads to another; Erin asks Ziggy to teach him Latvian....What eventually happens is that Ziggy experiences love: that human reaction not known in his planet.In Phoebe with Impending Frost Dr. Appel shows what lengths William (Billy) Deutsch will go to recapture the fire of a long lost love, Phoebe Marboe Williams, who is now married with children.In Invasive Species, Dr. Appel explores the realm of the afterlife as a young child, Celeste Eyche is fighting end stage leukemia. Their grandfather's clock becomes a portal where both worlds collide.In The Resurrection Bakeoff, people start resurrecting out of the blue and Charles Windham, a physician whose wife, Amber, is in end state cancer disease wants to compete in the state fair pie contest, but Charles is afraid that his affair becomes known by his dying wife because the woman whom he had an affair with, Rochelle Logan, may come back from the dead to expose his indiscretion.In The Orchard, Dr. Appel presents a widow who answers an add to work in an Orchard in Connecticut. As it turns out, she falls in love with the owner, Grover (Happy) Gallows - to find out that Happy is now also dying from cancer.in The Grand Concourse - a crazy woman who tried to drown herself gets a pass to go to an apartment in the Bronx where her grandparents died and realizes that perhaps her grandfather committed suicide.In Measures of sorrow, a graduate student tutors an immigrant of a nation that no longer exits, Ollie, so that he can win the heart of Laurah Townsend, a beautiful graduate student at his university. The tutor learns that he's the one who is the student....In Shell game with Organs, a magician, Bill Steinberg, a. k. a. Sleepy Santini must juggle his relationship with a dying mother, his relationship with his girlfriend who needs one of his kidneys to survive, and his relationship with his bird, Houdini.The stories are narrated from the first person point of view and read quite easily. They are quite entertaining and deal with many genres; from science fiction to death and dying, mental illness. I just loved it!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Bravo. Another Very Special Collection from Jacob Appel By Richard B. Schwartz While I enjoy short stories I generally read novels and nonfiction. I make an exception for the exceptional Jacob Appel. I enjoyed his first collection, Einstein’s Beach House. Now comes the second, Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets. It contains eight previously-published stories (thanks, Black Lawrence Press for making them easily available). The stories are all quite different, but they share common elements.First, JA is a very imaginative writer. He conjures up curious and even bizarre plot lines, but delivers them with the polished seriousness of a Victorian novelist. One way to think about his stories is to say that their circumstances, characters and plots often suggest the world of the ‘tale’ rather than the short story, but the stories are then told, utilizing all of the strengths (immediacy, ‘realism’, empathy, atmospherics) of the novel/short story.For example, the title story concerns a visitor from a distant planet whose job it is to attempt to understand humans. Living in Lummings, Alabama, he operates the only Latvian restaurant in the state. Across from the café is an abortion clinic. Pro-life and pro-choice demonstrators eat lunch in his restaurant and the protagonist, Zigfrids Imants Lenc, keeps them separate in his restaurant. Then, however, he encounters a demonstrator in whom he becomes interested. Any intimacy with her would be strictly forbidden by his planetary commanders. This is all complicated by the fact that life, death, and sex are conducted (and seen) in very different ways back in his home civilization. As strange as this may sound, we accept the premises and immerse ourselves in a tale of unrequited love that invites us to think about complex human issues.Some of the stories are New York Jewish, some set in Virginia. One is narrated by a woman. Some are poignant and even wrenching, some humorous and quirky.Most of all the stories are fresh. I love the notion of a Jewish magician named Sternberg whose parrot, Houdini, continually urges him to “Disappear!” I liked “Dr. Ed” the south Bronx alcoholic who conducts tours of the sites of peoples’ youth on the Grand Concourse.Bravo, Jacob, for another very special collection.
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