The Petorik Thesis and Tales of the Global West

From an Embassy in Europe to an Industrial Park in Suburban Los Angeles, The Petorik Thesis and Tales of The Global West resembles a ledger where the checks and balances agree to disagree. In this, his second short story collection, W. Jack Savage chronicles a beautiful woman’s quirky obsessions that leave a trail of regretful lovers, a writers disappointment at never being as important as what he writes and a unseen witness to a murder comes forward to do the right thing. But the witness and the right thing are subjective, as even Einstein observed, ‘there is no darkness, only the absence of light. By that reasoning a storyteller knows to never underestimate the power of the story or the desire of those in power to believe it for their own purposes. The door it opens swings both ways.The Petorik Thesis and Tales of the Global West is another of Savage’s exercises in unexpected redemption and forgotten kindnesses. Where a taker of life is as likely to celebrate those who live it as anyone else, and people Burt Harrison knows are getting murdered while eating yellow food. In coming forward, Burt becomes a person of interest.