MOTEL STORIES
The fictional Sunset Inn is a seedy motel with a storied past on a neglected block of Hollywood Boulevard. In twenty linked tales, MOTEL STORIES takes an empathetic deep dive into the eccentricities and troubled lives of the diverse guests who check in to this refuge of last resort—for either pleasure or escape, and always an interrupted night’s sleep.
Edward, the motel’s cynical but occasionally accommodating manager, confronts a daily cast of ever-changing characters. A man who dances with dolls. Central American immigrants from civil war celebrating their honeymoon. The addict mother of a newborn infant facing a fateful reunion with her long-lost brother. A disgraced politician forced into hiding. A Vietnamese mama’s boy waiting to meet his foreign bride. An elderly couple checking into the same room where they first met sixty years earlier.
Four interrelated stories complete the collection. A Filipina internet bride struggles to maintain her autonomy in suburban America. A teenage boy flees his hometown to escape persecution. A female impersonator replaces her glamorous mentor on stage. A gay, middle-aged gallery owner confronts his own errant past when his troubled teenage nephew visits.
William Torphy portrays these characters with both empathy and wry humor, revealing their universal desire for love and connection, recognition and security. Sometimes raw, and often humorous, this timely debut collection pierces through both the loneliness and the humanity of distressed outliers temporarily set adrift by circumstance in the American underbelly.
The fictional Sunset Inn is a seedy motel with a storied past on a neglected block of Hollywood Boulevard. In twenty linked tales, MOTEL STORIES takes an empathetic deep dive into the eccentricities and troubled lives of the diverse guests who check in to this refuge of last resort—for either pleasure or escape, and always an interrupted night’s sleep.
Edward, the motel’s cynical but occasionally accommodating manager, confronts a daily cast of ever-changing characters. A man who dances with dolls. Central American immigrants from civil war celebrating their honeymoon. The addict mother of a newborn infant facing a fateful reunion with her long-lost brother. A disgraced politician forced into hiding. A Vietnamese mama’s boy waiting to meet his foreign bride. An elderly couple checking into the same room where they first met sixty years earlier.
Four interrelated stories complete the collection. A Filipina internet bride struggles to maintain her autonomy in suburban America. A teenage boy flees his hometown to escape persecution. A female impersonator replaces her glamorous mentor on stage. A gay, middle-aged gallery owner confronts his own errant past when his troubled teenage nephew visits.
William Torphy portrays these characters with both empathy and wry humor, revealing their universal desire for love and connection, recognition and security. Sometimes raw, and often humorous, this timely debut collection pierces through both the loneliness and the humanity of distressed outliers temporarily set adrift by circumstance in the American underbelly.
The fictional Sunset Inn is a seedy motel with a storied past on a neglected block of Hollywood Boulevard. In twenty linked tales, MOTEL STORIES takes an empathetic deep dive into the eccentricities and troubled lives of the diverse guests who check in to this refuge of last resort—for either pleasure or escape, and always an interrupted night’s sleep.
Edward, the motel’s cynical but occasionally accommodating manager, confronts a daily cast of ever-changing characters. A man who dances with dolls. Central American immigrants from civil war celebrating their honeymoon. The addict mother of a newborn infant facing a fateful reunion with her long-lost brother. A disgraced politician forced into hiding. A Vietnamese mama’s boy waiting to meet his foreign bride. An elderly couple checking into the same room where they first met sixty years earlier.
Four interrelated stories complete the collection. A Filipina internet bride struggles to maintain her autonomy in suburban America. A teenage boy flees his hometown to escape persecution. A female impersonator replaces her glamorous mentor on stage. A gay, middle-aged gallery owner confronts his own errant past when his troubled teenage nephew visits.
William Torphy portrays these characters with both empathy and wry humor, revealing their universal desire for love and connection, recognition and security. Sometimes raw, and often humorous, this timely debut collection pierces through both the loneliness and the humanity of distressed outliers temporarily set adrift by circumstance in the American underbelly.
Praise for MOTEL STORIES
Will Torphy’s elegant narration creates a gauzy veil of tears through which we view a poignant, if haphazard, community of immigrants, down-and-outers, weirdos, and dreamers who use the Sunset Inn, a dilapidated Hollywood motel, as staging ground for their personal crises and epiphanies. Torphy loves his characters, but it’s a tough love that finds the poetry of real life in their desperate words and actions.”
—MARC JAMPOLE, Author of The Brothers Silver
About WILLIAM TORPHY
William Torphy's short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Bryant Literary Review, The Fictional Café, Sun Star Quarterly, Chelsea Station, Arlington Literary Journal, and Adelaide Literary Magazine. His opinion pieces have been featured in Solstice Literary, OpEdge and Vox Populi. Ithuriel’s Spear Press has published a collection of his poetry, “Love Never Always” as well as “Snakebite,” young adult fiction; and “A Brush With History,” a biography of California activist artist Eda Kavin. He has recently moved to Wisconsin from the San Francisco Bay area where he served as an exhibition curator for many years. www.williamtorphy.com
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Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 978-1-956692-61-7
Publication Date: March 14, 2023
