The stories in the collection concern a typical suburban, public high school. Typical is the operative word. Tax money poured in by the local community for extraordinary services provided to all school-age children. Money spent everywhere: acclaimed educators hired, spectacular facilities built, resources like computers and laboratory equipment acquired, extra-curricular activities created, yet the outcome? Academic failure, violence, drugs, gangs, and, drop-out rates approaching fifty percent. There is the result! Why? Where has the money gone? The resources gone? The stories provide a...

I begin. There is nothing. There are no thoughts, no actions. The blank page stares back at me. I wonder where the ideas will come from? Battling through the fears and self doubts. I doubt myself. I don't know why! I have always been the shy, scared clown? Why! Could my childhood, filled with put-downs and empty of praises, hold the key? That's too easy. In truth, my nature is spun from my father's, and his sense of inferiority and dissatisfaction. Does this help me as I sit here amidst skyscraper avenue attempting to formulate these sketches. Wait! My pen is quivering. The words are forming...

An infant, symbolizing the individual spirit, is born into a society in which individualism is suppressed through brute force. The infant's name is Mutilation, born on Orb-Earth, to collectivized humans calling themselves Outsiders who live in the Great Metropolis. Outsiders tolerate no opposition. Everyone must look, think, and, sound alike without dissent, and, up until Mutilation's appearance, there is none. But, with the child's birth, everything changes. The Outsiders are in for one heck of a ride. What follows is the pressure of the state to institute conformity, conflict, resistance,...

She was tall, dark and one hell of a handsome, sexy woman, still roaring to go even in her late forties. She bounced through the bar wearing her tight pink sweater, tight black leather pants and high-heeled, high-rising black boots. Her nails were long like a cat and red. Her eyes burned with desire. There, a man of good build, wide chest, and tight rump, stood. Not a bad face, she thought. Yes, he might do. From: Swing A Soft Stick. So begins one of Elias Sassoon's often humorous, thoughtful, and entertaining stories in Sassoon's Friends.

Sarah and Abraham (Abe) Klein lived ordinary lives for most of their existence. There were the ups and downs, money troubles, sickness, and disappointments, but nothing uncommon. It changed in their golden years. They'd become wards of the court, so to speak, or, better said, pawns in the struggle between their daughter, Abigail and son-in-law, Zaki. In the process, they'd lose their freedom and their lives. Supported financially by their daughter, and living under her roof, they became the subjects of pity. They also became defenseless in the face of attack by their son-in-law. From:...

Memoirs of Steinfink, composed in the darkness of hell. Everything stripped; all pretense. Doomed to death by calendar. Simplifies things the way violence simplifies things when uncontrolled. Me, Steinfink revealed in this dungeon of collective intolerance. Who and what am I? Questions upon brittle lips. Don't want questions. Instead, bow down before me, the prince of men, the Lord of the Universe. Name's George Steinfink, at least, how I'm addressed at this penal institution of ill repute. Name was sent down for me by that divine angel Gabriel, for me, the one who spreads the truth that you...

The novel follows Bernard (Bernie) Courtman, an obese glutton who is also a shyster, fool, sociopath, and philosopher. A remarkable egotist, Bernie's the ultimate salesman who peddles the world's inconsequential on street corners everywhere. When not doing that, he's manipulating our bankruptcy laws and credit regulations to fill his coffers and finance his other schemes. Utilizing assumed names, using forged signatures, stolen credit card and social security numbers, he changes identities as he swindles across America. Constantly in flight from the authorities, he still has time for romantic...

This is a guys' novel about guys, four of them to be exact, three who are single and the other married with kids. All are desperately seeking a place in the world; all think too much, worry too much, examine every aspect of their lives too much. Then, one day, one of these brilliant idiots puts his foot down and makes the others take charge of their lives. They hit the road searching for something, anything that might take them away from their humdrum lives. In the process, there's self-discovery. That leaves us with a novel that is vibrant, funny, touching and ultimately sad. You wind up...

THU. APR. 10, 2008 - Better frame of mind than yesterday. Today, just confused. Could be aging process. Times when the mind is clear. Other times, it's a blur. Curious. Other thoughts. Wonder if I'm revealing too much in conversations? Thoughts unending. Useful? Strange, contorted thoughts. Good? Can be. Thinking is free as long as you keep it inside. However, moment you reveal thoughts, the world pounces; you are on the outside looking in. Inner thoughts, wrapped in a cloak of amiability. The way to go. Time passing at work. Depressed. Why? Hard to unearth. The mind hides. Mind and body not...

The individual is under constant pressure. What is an individual? How are they distinguished from the mass man? What is role identity and how is it incompatible with individualism? How is the abstraction, the ideology, the religious identity incompatible with individualism? Why is the crowd opposed to the individual? What methods does it use to suppress them? How can individuals fight back against the masses aligned against them? These questions are explored in this collection of essays. Those representing collectivization are in charge everywhere. From their thrones, they rule with the goal...