Off-ramp is the debut collection of short stories by
Joburg-based poet Gary Cummiskey.
The stories read a little like dreams come to life. As
with dreams, they are disturbing and disjointed at times, soft and poetic at others. Some
meander slowly, others fly past. The stories juxtapose violence, erotica, and a
constant sense of fear and foreboding.
And yet the style is simple, clean, and often detached.
This adds to the surreal nature of the world that Cummiskey’s characters occupy:
it is like ours, and has echoes of the old South Africa in some stories, but it certainly
is not ours.
Described as (featuring)“individuals who are slowly
being devoured by paranoia and absurdity”, this is an unrelenting read,
and one is left at the end of each story feeling uneasy and a little adrift from
reality. – Karen Jeynes
(Published in Cape Times)
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