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Stories That
Entertain, Old World Tales, by Stephan Lackner, is a collection of stories that span a lifetime and bridge a gap between the old world and the new by asking questions that have been with us for centuries. What is good and what is evil? What is right and what is wrong? How do we behave in the face of difficult and emotional choices? The stories collected here present us with situations in which there are no easy answers, and in which people are confronted with moral dilemmas. In A Man With Blue Hair we face the prejudices that come with knowing only our own world, as a blue-haired man tries to find peace but discovers only pain and alienation. The Princess of the Crescent Moon, a beautiful puppet, is sacrificed to save her puppeteer's life in Just a Puppet. In The One-Eyed King, a one-eyed anthropology student rediscovers a tribe of blind Indians and struggles with his ego and inadequacies. An eccentric artist loves a rich beautiful girl from afar but gives her up when she's to marry a man she doesn't love, in From Life. In Firmin the Ferryman a ferryman loses his job to new technology and despairs until he finds love; but even his love is not without hardships, loss, revenge, and forgiveness. Some of Lackner's characters respond less than admirably, but many of them rise to the challenge of choosing what is good and what is right, in the light of a shadowy, uncertain circumstance. The stories in Old World Tales are less concerned with the actual decisions the characters make than with how the characters behave as they make their choices. There is a quality and a tone to the stories in Old World Tales that is reminiscent of another time. The language is careful and precise, and dignified. The stories are deceptively clear, simple, and straightforward as they impart their wisdom. Like fables and myths from another time, the stories remind us of the moral outcome, or lesson, that's buried in an experience, and in a story. |
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About the Author Stephan Lackner was born in Paris and educated in Germany, where he received his Ph.D. from the University of Giessen. He is the author of several collection of poems, plays, stories, novels, an autobiography, and works on his friend, artist Max Beckmann. Stephan Lackner's son, Lucas Lackner, translated a number of the stories from their original German, and is the creator of the cover illustration. Stephan Lackner lives in Santa Barbara, California. |
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Old World Tales 128 pages, paperback, $12.00 For ordering information, click here or phone (800) 662-8351 |