During the deathwatch for Martha O'Shea a community comes to life as the three women sitting up with Martha confront their demons. Annie, who still defies every rule in her rural community, keeps everyone on edge, and, true to form, her revelations in regard to her brother, who supposedly died in an accident, brings everyone to their knees. The Passing of Martha O'Shea contains the title novella (a semi-finalist selection in the 1998 Pirate's Alley Faulkner Novella Competition) as well as three other stories, two of which appeared in Christopher Street and The James White Review. From the loss of innocence of Fran ois in Qu bec City to the decline of a young hustler in the West Village of New York City, this collection opens up a world of intense characters carving out a place for themselves and accepting the consequences of choices made in a quest for clarity in the tangle of joys and heartaches that we all share whether gay or straight.
Benny Himelstein is eighty years old. He has been working for fifty-seven years of those years as the projectionist at the Rialto Theater. As he closes the theater for the final time before the wrecking ball is to arrive the following morning, he begins to recount the years of his life and the life he spent at his profession... and it hasn't always been an easy journey.In this tale of an old man's life, as told in flashbacks through the decades of the 1930s to the present day, time is often measured by the movies of each era. A touching melancholic story of nostalgia, romance and dealing with religious prejudice emerges as the years pass by. As Benny Himelstein's life winds down to its end, will he find it all lacked meaning, or maybe by some miracle, will he discover that in its beginning years God had already set the course for his life to conclude with discovering life's greatest meaning of all. So, come along with Benny and learn for yourself that God indeed knows the end from the beginning... because it is His hand that creates both.
