Short Stories Novellas a Closet Drama (ePub)

Betty and the Black Puppy is a story about a couple at the opposite ends of the spectrum after Betty rescues an abandoned puppy in the midst of heavy traffic in London. Binky's Reverie describes a young Guyanese man's unsuccessful pursuit of a romantic relationship with a Swedish woman

The Ballad of Calle & Maja offers two different ideas of love. In Two Girls in a Café, there is a toss-up after the girls claim to know a young man.

In The Eternal Struggle, James searches for the right woman, meets Maud and takes a bumpy ride. A Day in the Life of Charlie Cheddar is a lonely and frustrated poet who longs for a woman in his life. A new friend vows to change his fate.

Benji is a poet from an imaginary Caribbean island, in Getting It Right If Ever. He befriends a Swedish woman and seizes the opportunity to visit Sweden. The love relationship does not work well, however. Later, he becomes infatuated with another woman with a complicated love life. Benji remains optimistic about gaining the affection of the woman.

Strangers In Another Country is about a young Caribbean man's life as an outsider in a predominantly white environment where racial discrimination is difficult to discern. Moby is reluctant to succumb to a victim's image.

Darker than Blue - This Mortal Coil is a conglomeration of fantasy, comedy and satire. The appearance of inhabitants and their status quo range from pink, yellow, brown, and black. Boy Blue is an antihero, but a giant burdened with seasonal depression and personal misfortune. He faces ten years in prison for imaginary rape, unless he signs up for Dr Google's experimental vaccine. Democracy is a hero struggling to survive against autocracy orchestrated by evil forces.

Tell Me Who My Enemy Is is a 4-act closet drama. A West Indian and Afro-American are not close friends. They have contradictory views on how black people should live in Sweden. Berry is proud to be a hospital porter. Sam describes himself as an art student. There is a dispute between the two men, of which Gun (Bank clerk) and Kerstin (auxiliary nurse) try to make sense. Both girls are Berry's friends.

These stories have been published before, some as singles, others in a collection.

Review Rating: 4 Stars

Reviewed By Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

Relationships can be complicated, but sometimes people make them complicated... But there are other kinds of relationships, too: relationships between women and between men, not just between a man and a woman. Relationships define the people we are and it takes a clever storyteller to weave the magic of a good plot around multiple varieties of relationships. That's what readers will find in Lawrence G. Taylor's Short Stories, Novellas: A Closet Drama. Each story is well developed, using an effective descriptive narrative and believable dialogue. Tell Me Who My Enemy Is is a four-act play that begins with a list of characters and character highlights, a brief setting description, and then launches into the drama itself. The plot follows two men, a West Indian and an Afro-American, as they discuss their differing views on how black people really should live in Sweden – an interesting and diverse theme that many would view as timely. The author has a keen sense of plot and character development and tells a good story.