Chandler Thompson

Life-Arc Teaching Tales

“First come the inverted parables: a live deer is embalmed in white paint by kids who can't believe he's real; a surfer becomes a ghost rider in the curl of a wave; a widow's son is underwhelmed by success when he wears the vest she gave him inside out. The darkly comical stories that follow culminate in Zeugner's account of his own memory-riddled heart attack. The collection is a virtuoso performance to be savored over multiple readings.”

Manila Gambit

Fiction

“Take Eric Ambler, add a dollop of Carl Hiassen, and a drop of Graham Greene bitters, and you get Manila Gambit. John Zeugner keeps you laughing (almost) to the breathtaking end of this tale told by an hedonic journalist who follows the sun and a clutch of chess masters from Florida to the Philippines under the Marcos dictatorship. His travels are complicated by an addled girlfriend, her dysfunctional family, and a band of terrorists.”