The Camera Store and Other Stories As Times Pass

In The Camera Store and Other Stories As Times Pass, author Richard Selinka presents a rich collection of stories, some autobiographical, some based on others’ lives, and many purely imagined. The first story, “Why I Never Made It in Showbiz,” recounts a young boy’s brush with fame in 1930s radio; the next is a fond remembrance of an inner-city youth baseball team and its inspirational leader. Selinka delves into the supernatural in “Ghost Story” when a dying historian is visited by the ghosts of the subjects of his books, while humorously exploring mythology when a drunkard converses with a mysterious old man at a country club in “A Golf Story.” “The Condo and the Seabird” is a gentle and moving reflection on aging, as a retirement community resident finds himself caring for an injured gull. The long title story tells the tragic yet ultimately triumphant tale of two refugees’ flight from Hitler’s Austria, and the courage of those they left behind. The Camera Store is an often moving collection that entertains and transports the reader.