No Home In This World

Brendan Gisby, Editor: I'm a strong advocate of the short story as a literary form. Indeed, I've penned many of them, I've published seven collections of them, and for eight years I ran McStorytellers, a website dedicated to showcasing the work of Scottish-connected short story writers, including the work of the author. When I read these latest tales of his, I truly wished that McStorytellers was still operating so that I could have had the pleasure of publishing them on the site. As a gay man of a certain age, Kevin Crowe knows a lot about the cruelties and injustices that have been and continue to be inflicted by this world. Those cruelties and injustices are reflected in many of the stories. There's blatant intolerance in No Home In This World (the aptly chosen title of the collection); abject despair in The Roots of Their Raising; a terrible miscarriage of justice in No Smoke Without Fire?; and overwhelming sadness in Texan Condoms. There are no happy endings in these stories. But it's not all bleakness. We see the world redeeming itself in Moonlight Sonata and having the last laugh in The Dinner. All in all, a fine collection that is worthy of your attention. See more