The Art of Dying and other Stories
Mike Corwin
The Art of Dying and other stories, includes, in addition to the title short story five additional short stories and two novellas. In The Art of Dying, a man who has received a terminal cancer diagnosis decides to die in a meaningful way. He has lived his life in bad-faith and is determined to use the time left to him to redeem himself. A New Orleans Life, the first of the two novellas, takes place in New Orleans in the early 1960s. It is the story of a mixed-race young man and his deep-South girlfriend and his struggles over telling her of his true identity, knowing it will likely mean the end of their relationship. In the final novella, Biloxi: A Return Home, a man in dysfunctional relationships with two ex-wives, his daughter, and grandchildren, returns to his hometown after being away for fifty years. With the help of his high school best friend, he gradually resolves some of the problems in his life.