Gripes, Swipes and Giggles

Book excerpt: Hardly hidden even beneath the thick skin of country vernacular Killams keen intellect and droll Yankee wit repeatedly endorse common sense and practicality. His northern New England sense of humor oft comes across with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Little sympathy is shown for business representatives who after utterly failing to address your problem apologetically proceed to ask if there is anything else they can do for you. Focus recurrently pinpoints the lost art of listening, service personnel who fail to provide service and the irony and diffi culty of communicating via modern technology wielding the capacity but not the brainpower. Fun is poked at our current propensity for serving rules and regulations rather than each other. Yet overriding all is an innate concern and compassion for people, particularly for young folk. In this new collection of poems, essays and stories Killam is quick to evoke tears, pathos, laughter; -----to preach or to ridicule; ----- but above all to entertain.