It's 1956. Dwight D. Eisenhower is in the White House, and all's right with the world. Morton Grimes is a county health inspector on a mission: run Ladislaw Tomacheski out of business. Between Tomacheski's strange foreign accent, his Negro fry cook, and the strange phenomenon that keeps appearing on the Ladies' Room wall, Tomacheski's Hole in the Wall diner is a thorn in Grimes' side. But certain people from another place and time have a different plan for Tomacheski, and all the power vested in Morton Grimes by the health department will be no match for them.
Hole in the Wall is a short story of about 7000 words. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and was reprinted in Timegates, from Ace Science Fiction. This edition includes an essay by the author: "Writing Hole in the Wall."
"Hole-in-the-wall is a hilarious story told from the perspective of Morton Grimes, a city Health Inspector. Set in the 1950's, Grimes is a petty bureaucrat who revels in lauding his power over Russian immigrant and restaurateur Ladislaw Tomacheski. Tomacheski simply wants to open "Tomacheski's Hole in The Wall" restaurant and fit in. Grimes on the other hand sees communist plots at every turn. Both Tomacheski and Grimes soon find out that the name of the restaurant is more appropriate than anyone could have suspected as a temporal distortion opens in the wall of the women's washroom, complicating the already difficult situation between Grimes and Tomacheski.
Author Bridget McKenna succeeds beautifully in capturing the 1950's white male stereotype in the form of Grimes whose bigotry and anti-communistic bents are second nature. A quick paced and enjoyable story one of the better tales in the Time Gates collection."
- Andy Taylor
Genre: Science Fiction
Hole in the Wall is a short story of about 7000 words. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and was reprinted in Timegates, from Ace Science Fiction. This edition includes an essay by the author: "Writing Hole in the Wall."
"Hole-in-the-wall is a hilarious story told from the perspective of Morton Grimes, a city Health Inspector. Set in the 1950's, Grimes is a petty bureaucrat who revels in lauding his power over Russian immigrant and restaurateur Ladislaw Tomacheski. Tomacheski simply wants to open "Tomacheski's Hole in The Wall" restaurant and fit in. Grimes on the other hand sees communist plots at every turn. Both Tomacheski and Grimes soon find out that the name of the restaurant is more appropriate than anyone could have suspected as a temporal distortion opens in the wall of the women's washroom, complicating the already difficult situation between Grimes and Tomacheski.
Author Bridget McKenna succeeds beautifully in capturing the 1950's white male stereotype in the form of Grimes whose bigotry and anti-communistic bents are second nature. A quick paced and enjoyable story one of the better tales in the Time Gates collection."
- Andy Taylor
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Bridget McKenna's Hole in the Wall