Dispatches from the Cold: A Novel

Leonard Chang

Black Heron Press, 1998 - Fiction - 289 pages

What would you do if strange letters began appearing in your mail box? Read them? When the unnamed narrator of this novel opens misdirected letters, he enters the harsh, disturbing world of Farrel Gorden. Gorden, an assistant manager in a sporting goods store near New Hampshire, hates his new Korean- American boss, and is on the verge of losing control of his hatred. As we watch the narrator reconstruct the recent events in Gorden's life, including an affair with his boss' wife and the wrenching consequences that follow, the paths of these two disparate characters- letter reader and letter writer- converge violently as each intrudes in the life of the other. This is a story that blurs the distinction between the real and the imaginary, the violent and the mundane, and negotiates the exterior world and interior workings of a vengeful mind.

About the author

Leonard Chang was born in New York and studied philosophy at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. He received his MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and is the author of six previous critically acclaimed novels. His books have been translated into Japanese, French, and Korean, and are taught at universities around the world. His short stories have been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner and The Literary Review. He writes for the TV drama, Justified.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dispatches from the Cold: A Novel
• Author: Leonard Chang
• Publisher: Black Heron Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0930773497, 9780930773496
• Length: 289 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Psychological