Anticipated Results

by Dennis E. Bolen

Overview

A staggering, unnerving story collection about the lost members of the Boomer Generation—chronic underachievers at work and love whose malaise is tempered by booze and cars. They seek solace in each other's company via weekend trips and wine-fuelled dinner parties when not conducting interventions or fixing their cars; through moments of seeming indifference, humor, and false bravado, their demeanors mask a disquieting rage at how they've lost their way and a burning, shattering desire to try to find it again.

Dennis E. Bolen is a former parole officer and the author of six previous works of fiction in Canada.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551524009
Publisher:	Arsenal Pulp Press, Limited
Publication date:	10/11/2011
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dennis E. Bolen: Dennis E. Bolen is a novelist, editor, teacher, and journalist. He is author of six books of fiction, the most recent of which is the novel Kaspoit! (Anvil Press Canada). He lives in Vancouver.

Editorial Reviews

In this collection of linked short stories set in Vancouver, Canadian author Bolen (Kaspoit!) depicts the quiet despair of a group of aging, underachieving male baby boomers, who feed off each other’s dysfunction and self-medicate with substances both legal and illegal to deaden the pain of what they haven’t become. Structured in three parts—“Problem,” “Process,” and “Outcome”—the stories introduce the group of men, who met in a community college English class in 1976: Paul, a cab driver; Nick, an artist; Bill, a cynic; and Gus, an all-around sad sack.Rather than relying on cataclysmic events, Bolen shows his characters struggling through the indignities of everyday life: car accidents, showing up stoned to a dinner party, trying to stage an intervention for an alcoholic friend. While transitions between points of view prove jarring, Bolen’s spare prose and empathy for his characters make for a compelling read. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Dennis E. Bolen's spare prose and empathy for his characters make for a compelling read. — Publishers Weekly

Dennis E. Bolen's seventh work of fiction shows a writer at the top of his game ... Anticipated Results dances with clever language that both mocks and questions a generation's legacy. Boomers will see themselves in this cast of characters, and other generations will get an idea of how the Boomers' idealism went sideways. — Quill and Quire (STARRED REVIEW)

Bolen’s spare language and elliptical narrative style recall Raymond Carver, one of the masters of the modern short story.
— The National Post

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