Weary Heart

It's been said that any work of fiction is more or less autobiographical because it reveals the shape of the author's mind, his or her attitude towards life and living, his or her prejudices, sense of humor, aggressiveness or passivity, political concerns, etc. It can, in short, reveal something of the author's psychology. This is as true in a collection of shorter works as it is in a single longer one; the greater variety of situations, characters, points-of-view, and plot lines in a collection of stories gives color to the authorial persona in a manner similar to the larger canvas of the novel. The persona in the case of The Weary Heart is stable, grounded, perhaps even slightly old-fashioned with regard to the approach taken to the tales included. The lead characters are male and female, younger and older, facing a variety of situations, all of which, if not situations we've faced ourselves, are ones that can easily be understood and imagined. The collection's total length is that of a novella; individual stories range from very short to, in a few cases, fairly lengthy. Enjoy.