The Woman Who Wrote "King Lear," and Other Stories — Louis Phillips

Fiction. This wildly imaginative collection of fourteen short stories won't move you to tears, but will very likely move you to laughter. Phillips writes about a "committee of grief," about termites in Africa, about Lee Harvey Oswald's can opener. He tells of how an angry consumer shows his disdain for the telephone company by sending out false bills which, ultimately, leads to the withdrawal of the state of Iowa from the union. In one crazy piece, Phillips describes the chaos that occurs when a cat finds Thomas Hardy's heart, and, well, devours it, disrupting plans to put the heart on display. And he writes that amazing title story: Yes, it's true. "King Lear" was penned by Radcliffe Graduate Muriel B. Hopkins, not by the esteemed William Shakespeare. What is the theme connecting these stories? Madness, perhaps, but not only the madness of single characters - these stories are also about the "madness of crowds." Read these stories, but be prepared to confront new realities, some of which you may never entirely escape.