Proper Imposters

Distributed by University Press of Florida on behalf ofPanhandler Books, an imprint of the Department of English and WorldLanguages at the University of West Florida  In Proper Imposters,four contemporary authors explore the vices and virtues of deceptionand how it manifests in ways personal, psychological, propulsive, andprofound. An accountant at a pencil manufacturing company investigates aseries of ominous events behind the facade of the mysterious companywhere he works; from their deathbeds, fictionalized versions of NikolaiGogol and Edgar Allen Poe look back on their lives and remember an epic,transformational, and ahistorical road trip they took together as youngmen; a young woman is startled into action trying to execute "a simpleplan" of escape involving cash, a sleep-over by her college roommate andthe bold seduction of a boy she has decided to lose her virginity to;and, a reclusive night-shift worker tries a daring weight-lossexperiment only to find himself pursued by a stalker no one else cansee. Montiel Figueiras, Parker, Bhuvaneswar, and Ockert are devotees andvirtuosos of the form, and each novella is lyrically rich in its proseand swift in its plotting. Together, the novellas startle with theconsequences of seeing and being seen.