UC Riverside

One of the stories in No Comma, Period, Rage, begins simply enough with a family road trip to New Mexico. The parents are struggling (and failing) to maintain normalcy with their children as one of them faces mortality. In this collection, loss, anger, and confusion--and the repercussions that occur when they are left unresolved are explored. In a number of the stories a normal life is tested and thrown off the track by the unexpected.

In "1978" a boy struggles to survive at a new and dangerous school while still suffering from his father's death. The story "Inflation" focuses upon a teenage fence who desperately wants to maintain his needy girlfriend's happiness, but a friend's trouble complicates his pursuit of cash. In the title story "No Comma, Period, Rage," a broken hearted man agrees to leave isolation to meet a woman only to have his patience tested to extreme by a psychotic party guest. In "No Soap, Radio" a novelty executive seeking answers to his financial woes finds an unlikely solution in the seedy underworld of reality television.

These tragicomic stories illuminate the difficulties of communication, maintaining a Jewish identity, the intricacies of relationships and sex, and the need to find one's true self.