End of the Road

From the award-winning author of <I>Paradise Boys Scotch and Oranges</I> and <I>Ghost Dancer</I> comes <I>End of the Road</I> Americans fighting their fates striving to succeed.<P>In the multi-layered multi-nuanced narratives that readers have come expect in the Mendelson landscape San Francisco reporter Damian Vrabel goes off looking for America. Returning with 36 tightly written short stories-each exactly 1000 words-Vrabel chronicles departure and disappointment betrayal and bereavement. Traveling the length and breadth of the continent its heartland and its edges-San Diego and Alaska Key West and Peggy's Cove even Paris and Prague-Vrabel encounters terminal patients shell-shocked soldiers and ex-convicts; the troubled lost and bewildered. Witnessing every person's loss Vrabel helps each to articulate a sad epiphany. Subtitled American Elegies the book shares it tales of failure-while discovering hope in all of us. As Vrabel-and his readers-look to re-discover the American Dream they find instead the <I>End of the Road</I>.