BOOK REVIEW....

The End of the World (and other stories) - Alexander Lurikov

Product Description(Amazon.com)
 Alexander Lurikov's stories are filled with eccentric characters - loners, idlers, impostors, voyeurs, and other misfits who are obsessed with the past and often unable to separate their dreams and fantasies from reality. They lead contemplative, melancholy lives, and though they are determined to remain at a distance from the rest of the world, they constantly find themselves stumbling into bizarre situations with strangers. In addition to The End of the World, this collection includes eight other stories: Doctor Highlane, Diary of a Discontent, Demise, Man Seeking Women, The Key, A Continual Farewell, Oliver the Abominable, and Grains of the Golden Sand. 
Paperback: 188 pages 
Publisher: Gray Cadence (January 31, 2012) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 0983360650 
ISBN-13: 978-0983360650

My Thoughts:
I've had this book on my shelf for a few years.  Just haven't gotten around to reading it.  It is a collection of stories and as the description says, it is filled with some very eccentric characters. 
All of the stores are very good and I enjoyed reading about these people, but it was kind of depressing at times.  The story I enjoyed the most was Grains of the Golden Sand.  It's about a man that meets an old man and he starts having dreams of his childhood.  And some of the objects he had as a child somehow turn up in his pockets.  There is one sentence that sticks out for me from this story.  "I've come to understand the past, present, and future not as times, but as places: rooms to be explored, spaces through which I can move."  To me that's what memories are.  The difference being that you only know them as memories and can tell the difference between here and now, real or fantasy.