By turns hilarious and heartfelt, dark and illuminative, Ben Marcus's "Leaving t
he Sea" is a ground breaking collection of stories from one of the single most v
ital, extraordinary, and unique writers of his generation.
In the heartfelt "I
Can Say Many Nice Things," a washed-up writer toying with infidelity leads a cr
eative writing workshop on board a cruise ship. In the dystopian "Rollingwood,"
a divorced father struggles to take care of his ill infant, as his ex-wife and c
olleagues try to render him irrelevant. In "Watching Mysteries with My Mother,"
a son meditates on his mother's mortality, hoping to stave off her death for as
long as he sits by her side. And in the title story, told in a single breathtaki
ng sentence, we watch as the narrator's marriage and his sanity unravel, drawing
him to the brink of suicide. Surreal and tender, terrifying and life-affirming,
"Leaving the Sea" is the work of an utterly unique writer at the height of his
powers.
