Temping - Tapa dura

Temping is about a no-longer-so-young man who is a temporary secretary, then returns to graduate school, and gets a job teaching the theory of humor--in Finland, where he also manages a circus. The book opens in Seattle and encompasses Hong Kong, France and Finland. It has a love story, rivalries between the hero and other academics, religious ecstacy and several attempted murders. Its characters include Finland's saddest poet, an evil dwarf who is both circus performer and a senior Professor of the Comic, and a beautiful, young, blonde acrobat. Temping is a madcap take on the seriousness of life. And it has a happy ending!

Kirby Olson is an assistant professor at SUNY-Delhi, teaching philosophy, mythology, and literature. He has been a freelance writer, publishing art and literary criticism, poetry and translations from the French in Partisan Review, Exquisite Corpse, Second Coming, American Book Review, Pacific Northwest Magazine, and other journals. Temping is his first novel.