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Gregor Samsa Was Never in The Beatles, J. J. Steinfeld’s twentieth book and thirteenth short story collection, is an eclectic and thought-provoking mix of 45 speculative fictions written between 1983 and 2019. These wide-ranging stories explore many of the themes and the psychological terrain, from the absurd to the existential, through the varied literary lenses of science fiction, the surreal, fantasy, horror, the Kafkaesque, and the otherworldly, which the author has been dealing with in his literary writing over the years as he grapples with the desire for meaning and sense in the human condition while confronting the lives of his fictional characters and their imagined habitations. As with his other short story collections, the author’s literary exploration of the past, present, and future leads the reader through a multitude of worlds and realities, from the darkly comic to the deeply tragic.
“For decades Steinfeld, one of Canada’s most accomplished writers of short fiction, at home with both the ordinary and the extraordinary aspects of life, has been publishing some of the most unusual and exceptional speculative stories around, and now, finally, they are collected together in one place. You won’t find anything quite like Gregor Samsa Was Never in The Beatles in all of Canadian fiction.”
~ Mark Sampson, author of The Slip, Sad Peninsula, and The Secrets Men Keep
“Steinfeld’s writing may be characterized as ‘Kafkaesque,’ filled with modernist absurdity, enigmatic twists and turns, and blurred identities. Indeed the titles of two of his earlier books, Disturbing Identities (stories) and Misshapenness (poetry), give a sense of the kinds of grotesque distortions and ambiguities that recur throughout his career, no matter which genre he chooses.”
~ Michael Greenstein, in his essay “Kafka’s Call” from J. J. Steinfeld: Essays on His Works
Fiction writer, poet, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island, where he is patiently waiting for Godot’s arrival and a phone call from Kafka. While waiting, he has published twenty books: two novels, thirteen short story collections, and five poetry collections along with two short-fiction chapbooks and three poetry chapbooks. Over fifty of his one-act plays and a handful of full-length plays have been performed in Canada and the United States. | |