Like a Box of Chocolates

In "Like a Box of Chocolates" Costard has added twelve more short stories to his published repertoire that he would have preferred to have entitled Mixed Nuts because of the collection of eccentric characters who are his main characters. However, in a critical review of the original stories the collection was characterized metaphorically as "A Box of Chocolates. You never know what you're going to get until you bite into one!" For example, the main character in "Obsession" is a hard-charging stockbroker, a flaming obsessive compulsive control freak who is straight out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. With his sugary charm and movie star good looks he manages to capture Alice, his foil. She is a 30-something accountant who has managed to remain chaste of mind, body, and spirit. In her sweet naivete the lovely Alice cannot fathom Robert's depravity. In "Revenge," does Alice really get even or does she come face to face with her own demons? "The Jazz Player" is a pianist whose medium of communication is his music. Rebecca, in "Rebecca and the Professor," is an abused child. "The Traders" explores the divide between Jewish ethnicity and secularism. So many stories to tell and not enough pages."