A baker's dozen of stories set in the Midwest (with some flash fiction extras) that are based on characters in a moment of crisis.
Excerpt
He came awake choking, his heart pounded like a bongo. He was dreaming he was caught in a rip tide, but his oxygen-starved brain told him he was still swimming strokes on the surface when, in the upside-down reality of his dream, he was really drowning beneath the waves. He had been dreaming of Guadeloupe again. Not the sunny island he yearned for but a different one, one where nature’s forces were perverted and crawling things swarmed over the forest floor. His muscles felt as if a giant hand had been kneading him all night. The light flooding his eyes looked strained through dirty cheesecloth. The luminescent hands of the clock told him he had slept the day away.
Professional Reviews
Facing One's Fate
Out of Breath is a compilation of brilliantly-written short stories whose characters struggle against the outcomes their insecurities, greed, loneliness, violence, betrayal, or eroticism have preordained. An embezzler living out his sexual fantasies in Rio, an aging professor resorting to theft to survive, and a professional chess player enthralled by a beautiful street beggar do not anticipate the twists of fate that await the protagonists of White’s stories. HIs fresh, creative, and sometimes graphic imagery, plus original plots and recognizable characters make this anthology a must-read.
Skip the Psychologist . . .
Reading Terry White’s stories allows the reader to emerge regenerated and sad to see them end. In the collection, the title piece is Out of Breath and features a professor who has a lover who cheats. Other highlights include Last Match in New Orleans (a chess gambler begins a new chapter of his life with a meth head), and my personal favorite: When Are You Ever Coming Home? (a female sociopath separates a man from the tools of his trade in a most biting manner). These stories are riveting,deliciously descriptive, and at times just plain heart-wrenching. They simultaneously turn the status quo upside-down and attempt to keep it intact. White has a knack for using psychology and making one face one’s own issues, which make one lose one’s breath, lose bearings, and lose one’s mind. But after all the heartache, one may feel for several of his characters because there is a regeneration of sorts. Upon closing the collection, a valuable gift has been rendered.
The Journey to Loneliness
The title of White's collection of short stories permeates the characters he creates in this his third published work. Grgat, Pannecouke, and MacBride to name a few are out of breath emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually; they are experiencing the ultimate horror of being deeply alone. Yet there is more to the collection then its abandoned characters; it is also the subtle workings of White's hard-boiled style that often lures the reader into experiencing the same loneliness. A good read.
Married ten years, and more in love than ever, Robert and Marcie have everything to live for. But a terrible secret is breaking Robert's heart: he knows that Marcie is about to die...
Just as life during the pandemic was color-coded with different hues representing different levels of danger, life in its aftermath has become shaded in similar ways. As a self-styled “Seeker of Beauty with Beauty,” (borrowing from a quote by W.E.B.
