Derby Dugan's Deression Funnies

The Story

The menacing underside of family life is the subject of Eden Robinson's extraordinary debut collection. In crackling prose, Robinson describes homes ruled by bullies, psychopaths, and delinquents; families whose conflict resolution techniques range from grand theft to homicide; and kids who just can't get a break. A young woman copes with her mother's history as a serial killer. A boy, who slowly realizes that his cousin is deranged, feels torn between the need to eat and the desire to resist his tormentor. Struggling with ambivalent loyalties, a teenager faces the choice of leaving home or staying with abusive, alcoholic parents. Told with icy clarity in the blackest of humors, Traplines offers an unsettling look at an urban landscape where the bizarre and twisted coexist naturally with the dull and normal. A master of psychological suspense, Eden Robinson guides us through a world where the fast food, banged-up cars, and grunge of modern adolescence barely camouflage the dark extremes of sex, fear, and desire.