The stories in this collection revolve around the love that characters crave, lost, or may never savor.
In the titular tale, Leonard Leopold is a successful divorce lawyer. But as his 40th birthday approaches, he looks for a new direction in life, which may entail his obvious attraction to his secretary, Jennifer Hopkins. The L-word drives the stories in this book, and not always the romantic kind. For example, in “Carved Stone,” Jane Simonton has had trouble maintaining relationships since her father abandoned the family. But she ultimately develops a love for Inuit carvings that she gradually collects. The highlighted emotion is even a threat in the indelible, SF-flavored “Love Contraception.” It takes place on the planet Coddle after humanity’s extinction. But humans’ Thoughts have already become separate entities, “infecting” other planets. Love, entangled in those Thoughts, somehow proves dangerous to the cloudlets living on Coddle. Many characters share similarities, especially an appreciation of art, including Syd of “Immobilon” who, like Jane, collects Inuit sculptures. But others are delightfully surprising. In the case of “The Doctor Party,” Mr. Jones and his wife, Helen, throw a party with (mostly) physicians. But while he ogles his therapist, Dr. Kretchmer, Helen seems to have her eyes on someone, too. In the same unpredictable vein, Benjamin, in the final tale, “The Miracle of Estelle,” dreads visiting “annoying,” paralytic Estelle with his wife, Melinda. But he soon sees Estelle in another, brighter light. … The author’s breezy style offers frequent moments of insight: “But she loved that he needed her to be happy, and she saw his incessant self-doubts as endearing qualities.” Prefacing each engrossing tale are debut illustrator Carrillo’s black-and-white sketches, which resemble photographs from an album (complete with corners). A standout is “The Doctor Party”—an imperfectly framed snapshot of people awkwardly huddled with drinks.
Quiet but earnest tales with emotionally resonant characters.
– Kirkus Reviews
Author Joram Piatigorsky illustrated by Ismael Carillo
The stories in Joram Piatigorsky’s The Open Door are full of imagination, curiosity, and human longing. A lively, engaging read.
Elizabeth Poliner
Author, As Close to Us as Breathing
Joram Piatigorsky audaciously weaves the fantastic with the familiar to show what love can do to those who yearn for it.
Nothing is impossible in the worlds he creates, while the characters who experience the startling transformations that occur could be ourselves.
Surprise and recognition are the hallmarks of these utterly original and delightful stories.
Kate Blackwell
Author of You Won’t Remember This: Stories
Less Is Not Enough
“We all have our inner voice – private, teasing, often cruel – that taunts tunes so personal we dare not sing the words aloud. Poor Sylvia Slender, even trimmer than her name, was often bruised in battle with her inner voice – until she won the war.“
Illustrations by Ismael Carillo
“The Open Door is a brilliant and vibrant collection of stories that spans the breadth and diversity of literary fiction, from grave to funny to poignant and all points in-between. It’s this range of technique and emotional engagement that pulls the readers through each piece and leaves them anticipating what comes next. In a style reminiscent of Carson McCullers, Piatigorsky presents stories that are vivid with imagery while maintaining a dramatic element balanced by compassion for the characters. These characters truly drive each story to the point that you become one with the fictional dream that the author weaves so flawlessly. Even in being comfortably lost in the dream, you’ll no doubt recognize upon reflection that you are in the hands of a master story-teller. If you take home only one short story collection this year, let The Open Door be the one!”
James Mathews
Author of Last Known Position
Winner, Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction
Joram Piatigorsky’s The Open Door and Other Tales of Love and Yearning are acutely observed stories that often venture into the surreal, the scientific, and the drama of families and their histories. The prose is precise, and the characters surprise with their longing to change their lives, when they struggle to make sense of their histories, and when they find beauty in uncommon places and persons. I found the philosophical musings in these stories fascinating, as well as their implications for our future.”
— Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust
Illustrations by Ismael Carillo
Illustrations by Ismael Carillo
A beautifully written collection that covers the many territories between the real and the fantastic but that focuses on lives compressed by restraint and left desiring. A rich mix of art and myth, shape-shifting and wide-awake dreaming.
– Barbara Esstman
To Robert Bausch (1945 – 2018), author, devoted teacher and messenger from the heart
After excellent workshops by Kate Blackwell and Elizabeth Poliner, I took several with Robert (Bob) Bausch [@ The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD]. In addition to his infectious enthusiasm and knowledge, Bob always encouraged me as I struggled to learn the skills of writing. He never laughed at my mixed metaphors, or belittled my clumsy efforts at satire, or ridiculed my occasional runaway fantasies. He always found the few sentences that glowed for him – he pointed to the pony under the dung – and I kept writing.
Joram and Bob at Joyce Maynard’s writing workshop in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, 2008
