Local author Jerry Levy releases The Philosopher Stories, a collection of short stories
By YUANTONG ANITA LIU
Local author Jerry Levy recently released his new collection of short stories, The Philosopher Stories.
It is his third publication of story collections after Urban Legend (Thistledown Press, 2013) and The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness (Guernica Editions, 2020).
“I started writing about 30 years ago when I was overworked and stressed because of my day job. I had always been a reader, but never a writer. So, I decided quite on the spur-of-the-moment to take some creative writing classes as a means to obtain a better work-life balance,” said Levy.
Getting accepted by literary magazines after submission, Levy gained the opportunity to put together a collection of his stories, which was published by Thistledown Press in 2013 under the name Urban Legend.
He has been writing and publishing since then, and Levy now serves as a judge for the Writer’s Union of Canada’s annual Short Prose Contest and a regular contributor of book reviews to the Ottawa Review of Books
He said The Philosopher Stories is a series of 12-linked stories that centre around Karl Pringle, a young man who had been doing his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Toronto but was kicked out. Now he’s unemployed and lives above a butcher shop in Kensington Market. And in every story, he gets into trouble.
“On the face of it, you would think that Karl is simply a loser,” said Levy, “But he’s also a young man grappling with life’s big questions: love, success, loss, death, rejection, and fate. And maybe most importantly, He’s someone who desperately wants to not be invisible, he wants to matter.”
A resident of the Woodbine and Danforth avenues area, Levy said he enjoys living in East Toronto.
“Sometimes when I’m looking for inspiration, I just take a walk along Queen Street and check out all the people and stores, read the Beach Metro News. It’s amazing how a single word, a single vision, an unexpected event, can inspire new stories.”
Asked about why setting the story in Kensington Market, the west end of Toronto, Levy explained that Kensington Market is “the most bohemian part of the city. The main character, Karl, is an outsider, and the Market readily accepts outsiders.”
Levy mentioned one challenge he faced during writing was how to complete each story because they are all linked together.
“I’m of the opinion that a short story should entertain and provide a satisfactory ending. Endings that tie all the loose strings together provide readers with a sense of closure and enable them to remember the stories better,” he said.
Levy said he had to be mindful to provide that satisfactory ending and yet make sure “to conclude the stories in a way that made sense and didn’t infringe in a strange way upon the next story.”
Published recently this year, Levy hopes The Philosopher Stories can bring happiness to more readers.
“I’m hoping readers will not only be entertained but also see the deeper meaning behind the stories. As I said, a young man grappling with life’s big questions and trying to find a place for himself in the world.”
For more information on The Philosopher Stories, and Guernica Editions, please visit https://guernicaeditions.com/products/the-philosopher-stories?_pos=2&_psq=Jerry+Levy&_ss=e&_v=1.0
Or send an email to wordmaker99@yahoo.ca
