J. Robert Lennon

This was a very interesting collection of microstories/anecdotes about situations and happenings around a fictitious town. As with most collections, some were great, some were good and some not so good. They were quirky, with sometimes an odd twilight zone twist, or just an abrupt end, like you would have in a random anecdote. I liked the book pretty well. My only ding, was that perhaps there were too many stories. Hard to keep them all straight. To give you a taste, here's the introductory story to one of the sections, called Doom and Madness.

When a local apartment fire claimed the lives of 37 people, I was shocked and appalled. Later, when several residents were discovered to have been out of town, and the number of dead was revised to 29, I was somewhat relieved. At the same time, I felt faintly betrayed and disappointed, and wished that my grief and sympathy for the 8 additional victims and their families had not gone to waste… (mere)

I decided to read this book based on the back cover blurb which talked about the camaraderie of running teams in New York City. Being a part of this scene for decades I thought this book would be perfect for me. But it seems I didn't read the blurb carefully enough because it turns out the book focused on just one running club. A club for gays and lesbians. And while there were some good moments about races I ran; for the most part this was a novel about the gay lifestyle and all the drama that surrounds it. And believe me, in this novel there were lots of drama queens and consequently, more drama that I could handle.… (mere)