Eddie Stack

Out of the Blue Eddie Stack

Out of the Blue

These twelve stories by Irish writer Eddie Stack, recount the peculiar and amazing experiences that befall his native people, at home and abroad. In "Angels," Mr. Fine the eccentric chemist, reappears after a long hiatus and enchants the town with his violin. The dead arise to rewrite Irish history in "Ellie," when a recent immigrant to Ohio meets a widow long gone from Ireland. A donkey with an attitude hassles a small town in "Jack Ass Blues" and shakes the authority of Church and State. "Song for Angie" shuttles between Ireland and San Francisco, retracing through music, the lives of a church organist and her troubadour niece. In another tale, a foreign cabby ruffles local racists when he joins the town taxi rank. Love tests a champion Irish dancer in "Flying Visit," and the title story, "Out of the Blue," concerns of a mysterious funeral coming to Ireland from Chicago.

Surreal, naturalistic, cinematic, humorous and sometimes poignant: all styles intersect and play, often in a single tale. In this diverse and engaging collection, Eddie Stack takes us into worlds of magic and mystery, from which we emerge with a smile.

REVIEWS:

"Eddie Stack?s stories jet back and forth across the Atlantic, contrasting small town Ireland and big city US. Every time they land, the author seems to test the borderline of what might and might not be possible in downtown bars, crumbling dance halls and drizzly farms.
The result is a remarkably consistent collection of short stories.

Ian Wild, Southword

"This second collection of short stories by Eddie Stack has a wonderful sense of unreality, of weirdness among Irish characters and of downright fun."

Irish Emigrant

"Variously fantastic, comic, elegiac and nostaligic, Mr. Stack's fiction is versatile and engaging...a vivid, compassionate, authentic voice...securing (him) a place in the celebrated tradition of his country's storytelling."

New York Times Book Review