The Mall of Small Frustrations

A darkly comic novel that explores the simmering chaos deep in the heart of a suburban shopping mall.

An unlikely trio of friends navigates through their supposedly humdrum, work-a-day lives just trying to keep their sanity -- shy Jasper wants friends, laconic Kipling needs escape, and irascible Chester seeks the truth. But first they have to deal with tastelessly mustachioed managers, compulsory Christmas parties, mysterious customers, love, regret, revenge, redemption, raccoons, and the dreaded Wheel of Fun.

If they can survive, they get to do it all over again the next day, because in the Mall of Small Frustrations the only real truth is that nothing ever goes quite the way you want.

A darkly comic novel that explores the simmering chaos deep in the heart of a suburban shopping mall. An unlikely trio of friends navigates through their supposedly humdrum, work-a-day lives just trying to keep their sanity -- shy Jasper wants friends, laconic Kipling needs escape, and irascible Chester seeks the truth. But first they have to deal with tastelessly mustachioed managers, compulsory Christmas parties, mysterious customers, love, regret, revenge, redemption, raccoons, and the dreaded Wheel of Fun. If they can survive, they get to do it all over again the next day, because in the Mall of Small Frustrations the only real truth is that nothing ever goes quite the way you want.

Graydon James is a dad, musician, mailman, and author in Toronto. He has had short fiction published in the lichen literary journal and Avid Hands. His band (Graydon James & the Young Novelists) won the Galaxie Rising Star Award in 2010. This is his first novel.