A Collection of Chuck's prize-winning short stories launched March 2005. Chuck Kruger's new short story collection, Between a Rock, has just been published by Bradshaw Books of Cork. The book's credits give special thanks to the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Competition 2003 (part of the Listowel's Writers' Week Festival), which awarded Chuck's story "Hard Place" 1st prize; to The Dubliner Short Story Contest '02, which awarded "Calling" its overall short story contest winner; to the Cork Literary Review's 2000 & 1998 Short Story Competitions, which awarded "Gas Man" and "Click, Click" first prizes, and "Temper, Temper" second prize in 1999; to the Francis MacManus Short Story Contests of 2001 and 2002 which short-listed "Worm of the Sea" and "Boundaries, Bulls, and Brendans"; and to the Bealtaine Laois Literature Festival 2003 for awarding "King Conger" its second of two prizes. Also thanks to David Marcus, who published "Belated Rite of Passage" in Phoenix Irish Short Stories 1999. Jo Kerrigan, book reviewer for the Irish Examiner, has written that "Kruger is a storyteller in the old tradition. He uses a richly decorated language, reminiscent of James Joyce and Dylan Thomas in its tumbling words and rhythmic repetitions. Each story echoes musically from the page, as if it is being recounted by the fireside on a long winter evening and the subject matter matches the leisurely style. These are not terse accounts of a series of events, but rather peaceful relatings of thoughts, times, and attitudes which bring to life vividly the complexity and richness of Cape Clear, the West Cork island he has made his home for many years. . . . He notices the world around him and describes it with affection and respect. The humour is lively and infectious. . . . Ian Wilde, reviewing Chuck's last collection in The Southern Star, writes that "Above all, one has to admire the sure-footed, confident nature of Kruger's prose. It is immensely solid and well structured. Like a crafted stone wall, it gives the feeling of rugged permanence that will last centuries, however hard the winds blast." Poet and critic Bernard O'Donoghue writes of Chuck's "expansive, exhilarating eloquence"; writer and editor David Marcus of his "outstanding example of the anecdotal story". Of "Gas Man", winner of the Cork Literary Review's Short Story Competition 2000, Judge Marcus says: "Sea and sex, a formidable combination, provide the not always smooth rhythms of Fineen's life, and his difficulty in striking a consistently sustainable tune out of them, makes a story that in its irresistible writing and treatment never strikes a wrong note."
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