The themes of André Alexis's first story collection--belonging, displacement, alienation, and desire--may strike some readers as overly familiar. And most of the action in Despair takes place in downtown Ottawa, not exactly a city that makes the heart beat faster. Yet the author's achievement here is anything but mundane. Recounting his stories in precise, unadorned language, Alexis produces quiet dramas of nightmarish threat, in which reality itself constantly threatens to degenerate into (as "Kuala Lumpur" would have it) "something ecstatic and unhealthy."

Almost all the characters in Despair are isolated by circumstances beyond their making--or simply by their own imaginings. And Alexis manages to combine the cultural traditions of Trinidad and Canada to eerie, searing effect. In "The Night Piece," for example, a young guest at a wedding is haunted by a tale of the Soucouyant, a folkloric vampire who kills his victims by slowly biting their backs and the soft flesh behind their knees. "Despair: Five Stories of Ottawa" opens with the last words of a 50-year-old parakeet: "Jesus, Maria, my corns are killing me." But this avian fare-thee-well sets in motion a truly unsettling series of events, including the ascension of the peripheral (but symbolically weighty) Mr. Paz: Mr. Paz lay on the green grass with his arms out, like a man crucified. Soon Mr. Paz's body rose from the lawn; his body rose. It ascended. It floated above the houses in Merivale. It sailed over the thousands of freshly tarred roofs. It passed by tall buildings and from the ground it appeared to be a cross or a starfish, and then a speck in the sunlight. Elsewhere, plants grow out of the mouths of the poor, disembodied heads cackle and jeer. Alexis's brand of homegrown surrealism seldom seems contrived to shock us. Instead, he explores the interplay between the real and the not real, sketching out a fictional universe in which existence itself becomes a "confusion, a welter, a tangle, a tumult." --Ruth Petrie

From Publishers Weekly
Trinidadian-born Canadian author Alexis was shortlisted for a Commonwealth prize for this daring collection of eight dark, quixotic stories. Most feature a guileless, straightforward narration that belies the true eccentricity of the narrators, who have fetishes for deformed hands or who broodingly impart tales of voodoo curses, vampire hauntings and a doctor's unusual experiments. In "Horse," Dr. Pascal rents a room in a house owned by a man mourning the death of his mother. Ordinary logic stops here, as Pascal calmly offers to pay extra rent to compensate for the fact that, though he fornicates, he has "no issue to show for it," and begins his research, which consists of stapling thousands of flies to wooden boards. This story is weighted with baffling psychological metaphors and puzzles so meticulously and convincingly constructed they somehow make sense. Dream logic marks all of Alexis's stories, especially in "The Third Terrace." Here the unnamed male narrator is an aspiring painter, newly arrived in Toronto, who trolls the streets looking for prostitutes with mutilated hands, and what he does with them somehow involves burlap and axle grease. He toils as a hand model in erotic movies to pay the bills. After consorting with a prostitute, he is robbed and beaten, his own painting and modeling hand mangled. All this is related in a weirdly resigned monologue so disturbingly detached the reader is left to puzzle over bizarre events that seem to be, in the unruffled narrator's world, quite ordinary. In "The Night Piece," a young man called Winston claims he is dying because his landlady is a SoucouyantAin Caribbean mythology a person (usually female) who lives by sucking blood from others at night. Part ghost-story, part Borgesian meta-reality, part Twilight Zone, Alexis's book may confuse and frighten mainstream audiences, but readers looking for innovative, sharp and twisted new fiction will find it here. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
These eight short stories by the Trinidad-born Canadian Alexis were called "the fiction debut of the year" by the Toronto Sun when they were published in Canada in 1994. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review
"[Alexis's] stories are thoughtful, lyrical and formally ingenious."

Bliss Broyard, The Washington Post Book World
"...combines a formal style, fantastic narratives and a sensualist's worldview to convey the subtle textures of grief, desire and love...

From Kirkus Reviews
Echoes of Dinesen, Borges, and Djuna Barnes sound throughout this debut collection of eight curiously linked stories, first published to great acclaim in 1994 by the Trinidadian-born Canadian author of the equally highly praised first novel Childhood (1998). Metafictional whimsy and eerie nightmarish visions jostle together in this uneven yet engaging volume, which begins brilliantly with ``The Night Piece.'' Here, an impressionable teenaged wedding guest infers, from a story of vampiric possession told to him by a fellow guest, that ``his fate had changed'': specifically, that he now knows the adult world bristles with mysteries and dangers he had only imperfectly intuited. The concluding story, The Road to Santiago de Compostela, is almost as good: a witty exchange (a la Boccaccio) of stories ``about Love, or Ottawa, or Love in Ottawa'' among four Canadians in France on a pilgrimage whose tale-telling comprises a compact faux-Platonic debate on the nature of love. Other piecesgrouped to focus on their respective protagonists ``Michael'' and ``Andre''exhibit a frustrating unevenness. ``Kuala Lumpur,'' for example, diffuses the potential resonance of its arresting premises: a culture that puts a son to death when his father dies; and ``Metaphysics of Morals'' extracts a lame meditation on the contraries of evil and innocence from an anecdote about a dropped glove. But the amusing ``My Anabasis'' transforms fear of marital infidelity into a wry consideration of emigration and identity that's also a clever gloss on Canadian Ernest Buckler's celebrated novel The Mountain and the Valley. And the five-part title story, though it's resolutely anecdotal, gets rich parabolic mileage out of its several illustrations of ``the mysterious ways by which death enters the world.'' Not a complete success: opacity and coyness crop up far too much. But convincing evidence of the stylistic assurance and thematic range of an eccentrically gifted writer. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Now available in paperback-the exquisitely crafted, haunting story collection from theaward-winning author of Childhood. Following on the heels of his award-winning first novel, Childhood, André Alexis's story collection, Despair, offers further proof of his brilliance and showcases his talent for spinning disturbing but elegant tales. Emerging from the landscapes and folklores of Trinidad and Canada, Despair reveals a world both recognizable and shockingly strange. A failed artist with beautiful hands is driven by a fetish for injuries in "The Third Terrace." While on an excursion to a bakery, a man wrestles with his capacity for evil deeds in "The Metaphysics of Morals." In "The Night Piece," a boy is haunted by a story about a soucouyant, a vampire in the guise of an old woman. In these eight beautifully crafted stories, shimmering with malevolence and longing, Alexis has fashioned an underworld and limned it with light.

About the Author
André Alexis was born in Trinidad in 1957 and grew up in Canada. Despair was published in Canada in 1994 and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize. His first novel, Childhood, is also available from Owl Books. Alexis lives in Toronto.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Now available in paperback —the exquisitely crafted, haunting story collection from the award — winning author of Childhood.

Following on the heels of his award-winning first novel, Childhood, André Alexis's story collection, Despair, offers further proof of his brilliance and showcases his talent for spinning disturbing but elegant tales.

Emerging from the landscapes and folklores of Trinidad and Canada, Despair reveals a world both recognizable and shockingly strange. A failed artist with beautiful hands is driven by a fetish for injuries in "The Third Terrace." While on an excursion to a bakery, a man wrestles with his capacity for evil deeds in "The Metaphysics of Morals." In "The Night Piece," a boy is haunted by a story about a soucouyant, a vampire in the guise of an old woman.

In these eight beautifully crafted stories, shimmering with malevolence and longing, Alexis has fashioned an underworld and limned it with light.

André Alexis was born in Trinidad in 1957 and grew up in Canada. Despair was published in Canada in 1994 and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize. His first novel, Childhood, is also available from Owl Books. Alexis lives in Toronto.

"Alexis combines a formal style, fantastic narratives and a sensualist's worldview to convey the subtle textures of grief, desire and love while at the same time spinning some very entertaining tales. (Bliss Broyard, The Washington Post Book World )

"[Alexis's] stories are thoughtful, lyrical and formally ingenious." (Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review)

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Trinidadian-born Canadian author Alexis was shortlisted for a Commonwealth prize for this daring collection of eight dark, quixotic stories. Most feature a guileless, straightforward narration that belies the true eccentricity of the narrators, who have fetishes for deformed hands or who broodingly impart tales of voodoo curses, vampire hauntings and a doctor's unusual experiments. In "Horse," Dr. Pascal rents a room in a house owned by a man mourning the death of his mother. Ordinary logic stops here, as Pascal calmly offers to pay extra rent to compensate for the fact that, though he fornicates, he has "no issue to show for it," and begins his research, which consists of stapling thousands of flies to wooden boards. This story is weighted with baffling psychological metaphors and puzzles so meticulously and convincingly constructed they somehow make sense. Dream logic marks all of Alexis's stories, especially in "The Third Terrace." Here the unnamed male narrator is an aspiring painter, newly arrived in Toronto, who trolls the streets looking for prostitutes with mutilated hands, and what he does with them somehow involves burlap and axle grease. He toils as a hand model in erotic movies to pay the bills. After consorting with a prostitute, he is robbed and beaten, his own painting and modeling hand mangled. All this is related in a weirdly resigned monologue so disturbingly detached the reader is left to puzzle over bizarre events that seem to be, in the unruffled narrator's world, quite ordinary. In "The Night Piece," a young man called Winston claims he is dying because his landlady is a Soucouyant--in Caribbean mythology a person (usually female) who lives by sucking blood from others at night. Part ghost-story, part Borgesian meta-reality, part Twilight Zone, Alexis's book may confuse and frighten mainstream audiences, but readers looking for innovative, sharp and twisted new fiction will find it here. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal