John Rolfe Gardiner, prize-winning author, has been pleasing readers for decades with short fiction, published in periodicals from “The New Yorker” to the “American Scholar,” including “The Oxford American”, “American Short Fiction”, “The Ontario Review,” and many quarterlies.
Described by critics as a “master of his craft,” he offers readings here from a dozen of his best known stories, including those gathered in Best American Short Stories, The O’Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize collection and other anthologies. Most of these first offerings are read from his “Magellan House” collection, called “superb,” “penetrating,” “luminous” and “evincing the master’s touch” by a variety of critics. “The stories are distinguished by a remarkable variety of period, geography and theme.”
According to one critic, “he combines mystery and humor, and when he employs suspense, he delivers a revelation,” though another said the stories might be “just noise.”
Don’t trust the critics.
