The Literary Fiction Shelf
Compassion Michigan: The Ironwood StoriesAs an author with a genuine flair for originality and the kind of narrative storytelling skill set that keeps the readers total and rapt attention to what they are reading, author Raymond Lucazk has created an impressive body of work with “Compassion, Michigan: The Ironwood Stories”
- A Deaf woman, born into a large, hearing family, looks back on her turbulent relationship with her younger, hearing sister.
- A gas station clerk reflects on Stella Draper, the woman who ran an ice cream parlor only to kill herself on her 33rd birthday.
- A devout mother has a crisis of faith when her son admits that their priest molested him.
- A bank teller, married to a soldier convicted of treason during the Korean War, gradually falls for a cafeteria worker.
- A young transgender man, with a knack for tailoring menswear, escapes his wealthy Detroit background for a chance to live truly as himself in Ironwood.
- When a handsome single man is attracted to her, a popular schoolteacher enters into a marriage of convenience only to wonder if she’s made the right decision.
Raymond Luczak, author of Compassion, Michigan
Critique: The twin roles of the literary short story are to entertain and to provoke thought. As an author with a genuine flair for originality and the kind of narrative storytelling skill set that keeps the readers total and rapt attention to what they are reading, author Raymond Lucazk has created an impressive body of work with “Compassion, Michigan: The Ironwood Stories”. While especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and college/university library Contemporary American Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that “Compassion, Michigan: The Ironwood Stories” is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781615995271, $21.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.95).
