A Twist of Malice
by Jean Baxter
Seraphim Editions | September 6, 2005 | Trade Paperback
A Twist of Malice brings together fourteen short stories, told with economy and clarity. Their settings, protagonists and plots cover a wide range; yet the common element of irony unites them. In Jean Rae Baxter's dark vision, nothing is as it seems or as it should be. Her characters lose their dreams, or they dream too much. Obsession overwhelms a love-struck youth. A university student copes with the aftermath of a rape she cannot remember. Two eleven-year-olds kidnap a cat. A cast-off wife exacts cruel, calculated revenge. A bored housewife is trapped by a love letter falling into the wrong hands. An old woman imagines a beautiful life for the child she aborted seventy years in the past. In each story the central figure reacts uniquely when expectations are thwarted. The outcome may be absurd or tragic or darkly comic, but seldom what the character, and by extension the reader expects.
Six of the stories in this collection have been published in Canadian literary journals or anthologies. Five have been shortlisted for awards, and three are award winners.
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