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With a Proustian knack for recalling the
smallest detail--from a superficial conversation to the exquisite
pain of the perfect kiss—Hunter Flanagan deftly navigates
past and present, simultaneously analyzing, deconstructing
and torturing himself with memories of every girl he’s lost
or loved. For Hunter, writing is easy; it’s love that comes
hard. Even as he prepares to leave family, friends and Chicago—the
city that made him—he never gives up on his pursuit
of love and meaning. The Week You Weren’t Here is
a poignant and wry portrait of a young writer closing in on
the last of his undergraduate days. Charles Blackstone’s prose
is a seamless match for Hunter’s fragmented stream-of-consciousness.
From encounters with the persistent “stalker”
Kate, to the elusive Dewey, and the surprisingly independent
sorority girl, Lila, Hunter exemplifies our longing for the
defining moment—as fragile and quixotic a dream as life
itself.
Charles Blackstone lives in Chicago and teaches the
subtleties of limited omniscience at the University of Chicago’s
Graham School of General Studies. Blackstone’s short
fiction has appeared, most recently, in Rio, Wazee Journal
(featured fiction selection), M.A.G, Whet Magazine (a serialized
story) and others. He has a BA in English from the University
of Illinois at Chicago and an MA in Creative Writing from
the University of Colorado, where, in 2001, he received the
Barker Award. Currently, he is completing another novel
and a collection of stories.
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