In this latest collection of nonfiction stories and essays, Ernest Dempsey takes readers to the darker corners of human consciousness that make the boundary of our collective vulnerabilities. In these pages, readers will walk through episodes of heartbreak and grief, memories of childhood peace oblivious to the violence lurking in future, and daggers of disillusionment slashing the great expectations out of a naive heart. While themes of these stories and essays are varied, due to multiple accounts weaved around real-life deaths, “Dropping the Eyelids” can be called Dempsey's unofficial sequel to his short fiction book “The Blue Fairy and Other Tales of Transcendence” (Modern History Press, 2009). However, the narration and mode of the entries in this collection are more critical, self-conscious, and poignant than reassuring and veiled. “Dropping the Eyelids” is a book of nonfiction for the soul, and at the same time it marks a campsite for the author, who ventures into the creative wilderness, unarmed but undeterred.
