The bleak stories of John Mort chronicle...

The bleak stories of John Mort chronicle the small-town heartland of America--the firefighters, Vietnam veterans and orphans who dream of better times, better relationships, a better life. In “Chicken Man,” Gabriel, a young ne’er-do-well, discovers that freedom can mean an absence of love and human attachments. “Sabotage” focuses on a petty bureaucrat who plots the downfall of his able new superior: When his plan unexpectedly succeeds, he must confront his willingness to sacrifice another man’s life to his own own ambition. Like the virtuous pagans in Dante’s Limbo, the people in Mort’s stories long for a better existence, but know they will never receive it.