The Amazing Mr. Morality features tenacious men and women whose determination to buck middle-class social convention draws them toward unforeseen challenges. A failed television producer insists upon having a woodchuck relocated from his lawn, only to receive desperate letters in which the woodchuck begs to return. An overconfident ne’er-do-well obtains a lucrative lecture invitation intended for a renowned ornithologist and decides to deliver the speech himself. An innocuous dispute over whether to rename a local street opens up racial fault lines that prove deadly.
The collection concludes with the title novella in which two unscrupulous ethicists, writing rival newspaper columns, seek to unseat each other by addressing questions such as: If you’re going to commit a murder, is it worse to kill when the victim is sleeping or awake?
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher, Vandalia Press, for the electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a delightful collection of ten short stories that are eloquently written, each dealing with a moral or ethical issue. Incredibly well written and captivating from the start, Appel has a way with words that is almost poetic. The narrators in each story vary in age and gender, as well as the ethical quandary that they face.
My favorite short story from the collection is The Children's Lottery, which essentially was some Black Mirror inspired nightmare fuel that made me think for about three hours. And now I am thinking about it again!
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. It is a quick read and despite having the thread of morality it is in no way a cumbersome philosophical discourse on ethics... it is just a collection of stories to which the reader can relate to.
