Old Man Evil & Other Stories

Old Man Evil is a collection of 12 stories, six of which take place in contemporary America while the other five transpire abroad. The flagship story, in which a suburban refugee finds himself in a New Mexican shantytown among derelicts and eccentrics, examines the quiet damage inflicted by social conventions. Backlighting the action is the millennia-distant afterglow of Sodom and Gomorrah. Set to Rebetika music, “ Pub Blues” is an exploration of marriage and middle age that takes place in urban New Jersey. “ Chele Kula” dramatizes the struggle against imperialism during the Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1809. “ Straightsville” tests the depth of a suburban heterosexual’ s acceptance of gay men. “ Hamlet’ s Ghost Sighted in Frontenac, KS,” in which a mixed-blood Hopi wonders whether his uncle killed his father, takes place in a single hallucinogenic night fueled by cocaine. “ Tolstoy’ s Kunak” revolves around the friendship that formed between the Russian author and a young Chechen during the Russo-Caucasian Wars. “ Mengele’ s Gypsy,” is based on the documented relationship between Josef Mengele and a four-year-old Gypsy boy imprisoned in Auschwitz.

Vincent Czyz is the author of two short story collections, one of which won the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for Best in Small Press, two novels, a novella, and an essay collection. He is the recipient of two fiction fellowships from the NJ Council on the Arts, the W. Faulkner-W. Wisdom Prize for Short Fiction, and the 2011 Capote Fellowship at Rutgers University. His stories have appeared in Shenandoah, AGNI, The Massachusetts Review, Tin House, Copper Nickel, and Southern Indiana Review, among other publications.

Contents PUB BLUES 11 CHELE KULA 39 CIRCLE CEREMONIES 57 ARIF’ S REFUSAL TO BARGAIN 85 OLD MAN EVIL 103 TOLSTOY’ S KUNAK 151 STRAIGHTSVILLE 175 THE MOON HAS FALLEN INTO A WELL 191 HAMLET’ S GHOST SIGHTED IN FRONTENAC, KS 201 MENGELE’ S GYPSY 219 THE PRIZE 249 CONTRARY STAR 269