King Size Peggy

King Size Peggy: And 8 More Tall Tales is simultaneously laugh-out-loud hilarious and scream-in-horror terrifying, sometimes within the same story. The unifying theme in this "American Grotesk" collection of nine tales is jobs-a good one you can't keep, a lousy one you can't seem to leave, or a complete lack of one altogether. These stories feature ordinary people, sometimes culturally, physically, or emotionally vulnerable, who encounter unseen and occasionally malevolent influences. Then, in the presence of sometimes irrational, horrific, and transgressive thoughts, desires, and impulses, they are forced to claw their way out or die trying. From a transplanted country preacher trying to lead a freakish parish in 1920s Richmond, to a door-to-door salesman too scared to go door-to-door, to two unemployed schlubs who encounter a mysterious stranger who breaks into their apartment and goes to bed, these mostly Richmond, Virginia-based stories embrace absurd incongruity, flawed characters, and far-fetched bizarreness in a marked departure from the expected.