HOUSEBROKEN
by
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Why it was she happened to be sitting alone at that particular moment she could not afterwards remember, and the reason hardly mattered except that if the others had still been with her she would not have been looking straight ahead, gazing idly down the long aisle of the ferry cabin, wishing she had a seat next to the ocean instead of being wedged here on one side by the children's sweaters, Mom, it's summer! piled on top of Harry's briefcase, Guess I better look over those actuarial tables, and on the other side by the uncomfortable solidity of the bulkhead which partitioned the passenger cabin from the tiered vault where cars waited to disembark down the gangway to the island still two hours away, and she glanced at her wristwatch again, impatient for the end of this journey, this tiresome preliminary to a month of freedom then realized in the same way a wild creature will freeze by the water's edge that she was being scrutinized, but whether from behind or by someone across the aisle she couldn't determine; and she thought ruefully how civilization has dulled our basic survival skills, the primitive instinct for fight or flight still functioning but those fine discriminations we need to help pinpoint the precise source of danger, blurred if not atrophied by our millennia-long ascent from coral cave to condominium. We lie exposed.
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About the Book
The gnarly enigma of sustained love, the nightmares of loss or betrayal—these are the problems examined thematically in Housebroken, instantly pulling us into the complexities of intimacy—intimacy which paradoxically repels and attracts. In richly detailed settings ranging from Aegean islands to Australian beaches, these stories deal with conflicted characters, many of whom see themselves as disconnected outsiders, emotionally landlocked or alienated like Molly, a young American expatriate—in her heart she’s Spanish—but where and what is “home”? Or the lovesick New England professor out of his depth in a seedy Southern steel town. Others flee danger from within. A Victorian scholar facing unnamed horrors coming after him From Below. Or Roberto, the poetry-quoting drug dealer never able to outrun his sexual obsession. A patriarch who’s escaped the Nazis but not his punitive conscience. Life-lessons are learned & unlearned as these lovers and loners weave between hope and disenchantment, isolation and communion. Ultimately, after groping through confusing rituals, contradictory ground rules, each arrives at a revelation which illuminates (if not resolves) the passionate connections & disconnects all of us encounter in our lifelong pilgrimage of the heart.
About the Author
Barbara Leith spent her childhood in Shanghai & Argentina. Until moving to Kansas, she lived in Boston. She studied with Art Edelstein; her stories have appeared in The Southern Review & numerous quarterlies. Barbara, David & two valiant German Shepherds live in a Flint Hills Eden, perched above a lake.