In many parts of the world, a theater that features puppet shows is known as a balloon theater. The title of this collection invokes an image of puppets under the control of a master. Each of these thirty stories and essays presents an immaculately described, fully inhabited world of authentic characters crossing class and cultural strictures to resist the forces that would control them. A failed musician travels to Russia seeking a wife and rediscovers his inspiration. A SCUBA diver remembers how to see.  Two men, one successful, one a failure, meet in a mall and reawaken their long-past rivalry. A cocky high school student who is humiliated in a classroom peer-pressure experiment finds grace and forgiveness. A tough but well-adjusted kid finds poignancy in the home life of a classmate who is neither tough nor well-adjusted. An expatriate teacher who has left his family to engage his true self is unsettled by a cancer diagnosis. A writer in his “last few inches” of life engages his dreadful circumstance with lyrical clarity.

In Balloon Theater, Steve Moncada Street explores the misunderstandings, satisfactions, self-deceptions, betrayals, and eventual (if tentative) understandings of well-intending people trying to discover their own particular frequencies.

 

"This stunning collection of stories and personal essays—harrowing, wryly insightful, wise, filled with beautifully crafted sentences—displays the remarkable gifts of a writer who sadly never got the recognition he deserved and now can only be appreciated posthumously.  He understood breakups, searching for a new life only to find oneself trapped anew, the gap between oneself and the other, and the realization that maybe one was the other, and finally, glimpses of serenity, grasping how to live."—Phillip Lopate, author of The Art of the Personal Essay

“These are literary works often grounded in one’s struggle for self-awareness while attempting to create a satisfying life. Executed by an author at the top of his craft.—BlueInk Review

“Literature with the compulsive pleasure of dish… [These are] stellar stories and essays of expat life and connection transcending divides.”—BookLife, Editor’s Pick

“In the evocative literary collection Balloon Theater, expatriates, young couples, and people coming to terms with their roles in the world leave haunting impressions.”—Foreword Clarion, f0ur stars

“Street is full of brilliant observations about expat life…. Street is a shrewd observer of human personality…. There’s a hard earned wisdom and quiet craftsmanship to all of Street’s pieces, making it difficult for the reader to ever tire of them.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Street is one savvy, fearless, and lyrical storyteller. His range and confidence are astonishing. I love this book”—John Dufresne, author of Storyville