Losing Patience

In this collection, Joyce Faulkner manages to capture the reader's interest by plunging him or her into the world of the mysterious, the macabre and the horrific. There is something for everyone here: for the Civil War buff, for the crime story lover and for the aficionado of Americana. Faulkner handles her material excellently and in the title story, Losing Patience, gives the reader unexpected jolts that remimds me of a combination of O. Henry's surprise endings, punctuated by the grotesqueness of Franz Kafka.

Joyce Faulkner writes on multiple levels and I find each level a feast. Losing Patience should be read leisurely and deliciously, and enjoyed like a multi-course dinner. Take out any one story. Read it at surface level and you'll have an enjoyable read. Ponder it awhile and it will seep through to deeper levels, and you will taste the different flavors of relationships, human emotions and morality. An underlying theme is the commonality of our emotions and reactions. Not all stories are easy, but all ring true.

A great book that will make short work of your spare time and really make you think. Eerie events decribed in vivid detail will stay with you long after you finish. Who knows? Maybe you'll relate to one of the characters and learn to conquer your own demons?

Joyce Faulkner provides the reader with spellbinding stories of the likes we have seldom seen since Alfred Hitchcock entered this arena. The turn of each page leads to a new and succulent morsel for the mind to devour.

Joyce Faulkner, author of Losing Patience, has produced a powerful collection of short stories that explore themes such as guilt, forgiveness, misguided obedience and retribution. Her psychologically memorable characters sort through complex issues and face difficult decisions. In "Chance," Faulkner focuses on the various aspects of passion. Chance feels like a second class person all his life. After loving and losing a woman to his own father, he grows increasingly unbalanced. Like an old Twilight Zone episode, this dark tale follows Chance into the depths of madness. In "Andrew," two Civil War soldiers, Grover and Andrew, carry on a ghostly conversation about life, death and regrets. The old enemies come to terms with what it means to kill and what it means to die. "Just Hold Me" takes place in 1967. Gary, a returning Vietnam veteran, is unable to make himself go home and face his mother. Having lost his way in the labyrinths of war, he turns to a stranger for solace. Filled with guilt and anger, he struggles to leave the ugly memories behind. In "Infinity," Faulkner takes on the never-ending circle of violence against women. An eleven year old girl has been violated and meets with a rape crisis counselor who knows first hand what she is going through. "Infinity" delves into the emotional trauma such an event inflicts on victims, families, counselors, police and healthcare workers. Human sacrifice, religious beliefs and blind obedience are represented in "The Test," a modern retelling of a Biblical story. Abe must choose whether to obey a voice that tells him to murder his beloved newborn child or ignore it. Is he hallucinating or is he hearing from God? Losing Patience is not without humor. In "The Rubber Dome," Faulkner introduces a woman who has lost her husband. In her grief, she decides to never allow herself to care again -- but as the years pass, her longing for her lost lover becomes ever more intense. Perhaps she can find a man to take the place of her darling husband, if just for the night. Things don't go as planned. Her experience teaches her to laugh at herself and reach out to begin a new life. The twenty stories that make up Losing Patience are engaging, mind bending and thought provoking. The collection will keep you coming back for another read to see what else the stories say to you.