THE KNUCKLEHEAD AND OTHER STORIES

A collection of short stories and a novella brim with quirky people, world history, and mechanical things.

In the opening titular story, two teenage friends want to buy a long-forgotten Harley stored in a barn. Getting the motorcycle started is a chore, but an unexpected mishap later may have them regretting their purchase. Throughout his collection, Ealey displays an affinity for mechanics—mostly vintage vehicles. But the novella, The Angelic Escapement, centers on timepieces. In it, Englishman Dash Pomeroy is an older, avocational horologist (someone who measures time) living in 1962 America. A half-century earlier, he and his twin brother, Bernard, at Lord B.’s English estate, first see the Galileo Escapement. While it resembles a pendulum clock, the object is an unfinished prototype. Lord B. enlists the brothers to track down information on Galileo’s machine, which the aristocrat believes does more than tell time. Though the device’s exact purpose isn’t immediately clear, some people are convinced that Dash and Bernard are on an “unholy quest.” Ealey’s collection couples strong characterization with a discernible theme of fatherhood. In “The King of Nemi,” Wills stays with his frail, sickly father at the man’s Maine home. As he does his best to nurse his father back to health, Wills may neglect taking care of himself. The author aptly grounds these stories in real-life events, such as the Pomeroy twins’ joining the Army around the time of World War I. But the five tales also boast a fair amount of comedy. Dash, for example, recounts his fantastic history to the kid who mows his lawn; this boy’s excessive flatulence spawns a series of lowbrow but uproarious fart jokes. Yet the volume’s finest ingredient is Ealey’s razor-sharp prose: “It seemed like each generation heaved an unfair heaping of uncuttable mustard onto the next, probably going the whole way back to Adam and Eve, the most spectacularly bad reapers of the mustard plant since time began.”

Distinctive characters and vibrant humor enhance these indelible tales.