For thoughtful authors, writing is far more than an avocation. It is the elemental tool they use to wrestle sense, hope, order—even humor—from this often perplexing and sometimes senseless world we live in. When they write as uncommonly well as Pittsburgh author Mark Collins does in his new offering, Wayward Tracks, their words resonate with our own experience and propel us toward greater clarity about our own lives, our own predicaments.
In Collins’ witty, thought-provoking collection of stories, observations, essays, speeches (real and imagined), and poems, no topic is too mundane or too profound for his wickedly entertaining analysis. We find him as an archeologist digging life’s little treasures from the glove box of the dying family van; or raging at God in a hospital waiting room where there will be no good news tonight; or helping a grieving daughter absorb her young friend’s suicide; or stopping on a street corner to discover the healing power of a kind word.