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Overview
Dexter Giles, who has lived a secret life as a gay man, circumnavigates the years surrounding retirement from Imperial Petroleum by conducting a personal accounting. In the process of attempting to reconcile the polarities of his existence, he succeeds in ways both comic and touching in escaping his button-down existence and in coming to terms with his own mortality.Synopsis
Dexter Giles has lived a double life, balancing a straight-jacketed career in the homophobic towers of corporate culture with his secret life as a gay man. He is of a generation still haunted by pre-Stonewall sensibilities. In The Final Audit and other stories, Ronald Alexander's compelling new work of fiction, Dexter circumnavigates the years surrounding his retirement from Imperial Petroleum by conducting a personal accounting: he brings at times an infuriatingly mathematical logic to settling personal debts, recomputing profit/loss statements, and closing the books on completed transactions. His struggle is informed by both world-weariness and naivete, resentment and compassion, cynicism and romanticism. In the process of attempting to reconcile the polarities of his existence, Dexter, in fits and starts, succeeds in ways both comic and touching in escaping his buttoned-down existence and in coming to terms with his own mortality.
About The Author:
RONALD ALEXANDER's work has appeared in publications including Chicago Tribune, New Mexico Humanities Review, The James White Review, Columbia, The Chattahoochee Review, and Confrontation. He lives in Venice, California.
Jeffrey Jasper
This is a collection of well-worded and beautifully thought-out reflections that leave the reader wanting more.—Lambda Book Report
Editorials
Alice McCracken
Dexter Giles is drawn sensitively, with impeccable and often subtle detail.Β California Seniors
Balford Henry
His writing is liquid and attractive.Β The Sunday Gleaner
Hillary Johnson
Alexander is an accomplished writer with a deft hand for characterization, and his work is a joy to read.Β LA Weekly
Jeffrey Jasper
This is a collection of well-worded and beautifully thought-out reflections that leave the reader wanting more.ΒLambda Book ReportJeffrey Jasper
This is a collection of well-worded and beautifully thought-out reflections that leave the reader wanting more. I, for one, would be happy to read more from this author.βLambda Book Report