The Problem with Relativity

by John Sokol

Fiction. Nothing in John Sokol's stories are as they appear. A visual artist with a Shakespearian bent for understanding the fundamental principles of "reality versus appearance," Sokol exposes moments of human folly and bizarre behavior as if he were exposing tricks of light and shade. The characters are by turn bizarre, pathetic, and sympathetic, and they reveal Sokol's dark sense of humor at its best: Van Gogh, at his most humorously neurotic; a jealous, scheming academic; a Peeping Tom; and a nine-year-old girl who can see into the future. All of which, of course, make for interesting narrative premises-but these characters are so complex and human that they transcend the novelty of their circumstances. This is a gallery of finely-tuned portraits of human disorder and brief moments of clarity. These stories withstand the test of careful critical scrutiny and rereading.

108 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2006