Curse of the Maestro and Other Stories
Short Story Collection
by G T Walker
A psychopath’s scented love letters. Neo-Nazi music journalism. The museum guestbook, right beside a lifelike diorama of musicians in their natural habitat. This collection of hybrid fiction is all that remains of the Stonehaven Symphony Orchestra. In the aftermath of their fiery tour bus mishap, Curse of the Maestro documents the lives, loves, and musical pursuits of tuxedo-clad misfits in their own words, a shameless allegory for the performing arts today. Characters from the gamut of racial and sexual orientations drive these short stories, unreliable narrators exploring the secret trenches of high art.
Fearless readers will embark upon an almost archaeological excavation of these artifacts, searching for clues to uncover answers to questions they did not know they had:
Did Romeo and Juliet really text each other?
How did Lil Skank end up overdosing on stage?
And will the young explorer ever discover a maestro’s secrets?
REVIEW
5 out of 5
This is quite honestly, unlike anything I’ve ever read before – and something you’ll need to read and decide for yourself whether the unique format clicks with you. It certainly made for an intriguing read! Told with different styles and formats, at the start this sort of reminded me of Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay if it was written in the present day, for adults. But it doesn’t quite match up with that, it’s more of a vibe than an exact comparison, if you will. Instead of watching archaeologists uncover a motel and try to piece together what everything in it means, we get to see not only the excavation and the personalities involved, but the actual people who died in the crash, through their own words and “artifacts” they leave behind. I love how it was presented as a museum exhibit, and it was easy to imagine you were walking through a museum examining the exhibits. Honestly, if you enjoy books that are off the beaten path stylistically speaking, you should snag this and read it!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The alter-ego of Black concert violinist Gregory Walker, G.T. is an Elizabeth M. Cruthers Prize-winning playwright, author of Trigram Cluster Funk (Double Dragon), and still occasionally freelances as a writer and columnist for Strings, Teen Strings, and Chamber Music magazine.
