The Price of Their Toys: Stories

A young boy visits a friend’s house and reflects on his own dysfunctional family. After his engagement falls apart, a man must deal with the flood of no-longer-necessary wedding presents. A professional eulogist takes on a living client. A woman gets a summer job as a magician’s assistant, which proves less magical than she’d hoped. A man’s daughter wants him to clean out her late mother’s closet, but maybe those clothes can bring him solace. In The Price of Their Toys, the men and boys (and one woman) each get a sudden, clear understanding of themselves as someone less than they had hoped to be. From story to story, John P. Loonam builds a mosaic of modern life, charged with the arrogance of youth, the despair of aging, and the prices we pay along the way.