Genre : Literary Fiction , Short Stories, Crime
Author : Mitchell Waldman
Author's Website : http://mitchwaldman.homestead.com
Author's Blog : http://mitchwaldman.homesead.com/pettyoffenses.html
Goodreads Author Page : http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/587343.Mitchell_Waldman
Amazon Stores : Paperback and Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/Petty-Offenses-Crimes-Mitchell-Waldman/dp/1936138360
ISBN : 978-1936138364 (Print)
Barnes and Noble : http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/petty-offenses-and-crimes-of-the-heart-mitchell-waldman/1104429226
Reviews : 4.5-5stars
Blurb : The crimes involved in the stories in PETTY OFFENSES AND CRIMES OF THE HEART may sometimes be petty – a man who leaves a bag of cat droppings on his neighbor’s doorstep after learning about his past – and sometimes involve criminal types (the career criminals in “My Life of Crime” and “Missing Pieces”). But more often the offenses involved are committed by and against ordinary people (the man in “The Nazi Next Door” who learns one evening, over a fence, that his neighbor’s father collaborated with the Nazis during World War II). And there are the mysterious offenders, such as the ambiguous interviewer in “Catching Up with Cartucci,” who unbeknownst to the interviewee, seems to have special knowledge and opinions about the latter.
Some of the “crimes” in these stories run much deeper, are of a much more emotional nature. The offenders and victims in these tales have been much more tortured than by any run of the mill crime. Such as the mother in "Fortunate Son," whose son goes missing in action while on duty in Iraq, and the father in “The Duke of Broad Street” (nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize), who, twenty years after abandoning his daughter, shows up on her doorstep harboring a deep secret. Or the man in “A Ghost in Manhattan” who, during a lunch break, believes he sees his dead girlfriend in a crowd, walking the streets of Manhattan.
Amazon Reviews- View here
Editorial Reviews- view here
These stories startle with sudden, uncompromising insight. They seem ordinary people engaged in ordinary lives until betrayals, accidents and misfortune put the puzzles of their weak choices and unfair chance into stark relief when they are left with a kind of clarity they might have been happier not to have. -- Perry Glasser, author of Dangerous Places
Faulkner said that an author's job is to make the extraordinary seem ordinary and to make the ordinary seem extraordinary, and in Petty Offenses this is what Waldman accomplishes. While reading the stories you may wonder "Is there any place safe to go?," but you will be glad that you spent time in Waldman's world. -- Cybersoleil Journal
The stories in Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart leave the reader wondering who is the real criminal. . . .These characters have something to share -- something profound, something personal, and something that reveals a little about ourselves. -- TCM Reviews
Beautifully crafted stories .... "Missing Pieces"...is an example of Waldman's versatility as a writer. . .Each of these stories can be read as self-contained compositions but I would recommend you read them in sequence to experience the themes to unfold as most satisfyingly do. -- Dean Cowan for Bookpleasures.com
In [his] collection of short fiction...Mitchell Waldman talks on many topics throughout recent history and the struggles to understand an impossible to understand world. With poignancy and wisdom peppered throughout, Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart is a read that is well worth considering, highly recommended. -- Midwest Book Review
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