| WAKE UP THE FAMILY is a collection of short stories, set in contemporary Las Vegas. These stories share more than a geographic setting; they share common concerns of loneliness, loss, alienation, and illness. The stories are further linked by the repetition (across multiple narratives) of plotlines, images, phrases, and key words. The links between these stories---thematic and otherwise---are meant to encourage a reading of the collection as one extended work of fiction, rather than as a group of separate works. It is hoped that these links will lead the reader to interpret each story in terms of the other (related) stories in the collection, with the result that her understanding of every work is deepened, complicated, and changed, by her understanding of the rest of WAKE UP THE FAMILY. Of course, it is also hoped that all of the stories will be enjoyed, appreciated, and remembered as individual works, for the stories they tell, and, more importantly, for the characters who live those stories. |
