Publisher's Synopsis
Memoirs and Lies is the author's second collection of short stories. The first story is constructed solely by reference to memory without resorting to any extraneous source and is thus an apt title. It describes his Basic Training in World War II in which the Army sought to find a niche for his remarkable, but questionable, abilities by transfer from camp to camp across the country, his less than heroic exploits in combat as a scout in a famous reconnaissance battalion in Europe, his post-European war stint as an actor in a prestigious dramatic school in London while waiting for transshipment to Japan, his adventures while AWOL in Scotland and Paris, return to the University of Chicago, job as a movie publicist in the days of vaudeville and later as a shipping clerk in his family's business until entry into Law School. The other stories are as alive, humorous or despairing as the characters that people them, but always infused with the author's mordant wit and sardonic laughter. "Death By Lox" is a compelling compote that merges grandmotherly recipes with impending disaster. "Ants" imaginatively antedates the recent spate of fictional accounts by eminent entomologists of that implacable and curious creature. "Twins" is based upon a true life account of identical twins who each accuses the other of murdering their farther. The other stories all contribute to his Gold Medal award. When asked what impelled the author at his relatively advanced age of 87 and still a practicing attorney for 57 years to write these stories, his reply was short, direct and certain: "to entertain myself." Begin reading and you will understand why he succeeded.
