"Levitation for beginners" by Suzannah Dunn

An audio book.

50+ years later, the first-person PoV Deborah thinks back to her junior village school with its class of 8 (2 boys). She recalls the first day of Sarah Jayne in 1972 when she was about 10. She's searched online for classmates, but presumably they've changed surname. She hasn't. She was the only one of the class to go to grammar school.

Her mother, Sandy Darke, became a widow at 24 and never remarried. She died last week saying "Odd business, up at the vicarage". The vicarage was the grandest house of the village.

Sarah Jayne is more sophisticated than the village girls, and upsets old alliances. Caroline starts ineptly trying to attract the boys' attention. Sarah Jayne comes from "abroad". She knows about vodka.

Deborah tries to piece together from song lyrics, gossip and her mother's guarded comments what marriage is about. Sarah Jayne wants to marry popstar David Cassidy but starts "going out" with one of the 2 boys in the class, Neil.

When her mother can't cope with a spider she gets Deborah to ask for help from a passing boy on a bike. Sunny - common and cheeky - plans to run discos. He drops in again for a drink, giving them a cassette player and promising them tapes. Deborah thinks that Sunny and her mother act strangely together, her mother lenient about his language and smoking.

At lunchtime the girl practice trying to levitate - they've seen hippies try it on TV.

50% through the book we learn that Deborah's a mother. It's barely mentioned again.

Sarah points out that Miss Drake, the infant teacher, has hairy legs. Rumour somehow spreads that she's a lesbian. The girls aren't all sure what a lesbian is - they like watching Miss World. Deborah finds out that Miss Drake is about to be married. The other girls are impressed.

The others see Sunny working on scaffolding and fancy him. They're impressed that he's been in Deborah's bathroom.

Deborah's mum tells her that Sunny's coming to the school fete. Deborah worries about it. She's invited to Sarah's house. It has a grand piano, and does indeed have a derelict pool. Sarah's brother-in-law to-be isn't very impressive. Sarah's 16 years older sister used to go out with a bomber.

Deborah's mum finds out that Sarah is the daughter of the girl she thinks is her older sister. Sarah doesn't seem to know. While Deborah's at Sarah's, they play with a gun, pointing it at a man. It goes off with Deborah's hand on the trigger. Sarah takes the blame. Sarah's family soon move away.

Other reviews

• Catherine Taylor (Brilliantly articulated and often piercingly sad, Dunn’s characters find themselves caught up in what may today be termed quarter-life crises – they are unsettled, dissatisfied; prone to despair, to jealousy, to falling unsuitably in love, to deep, unnavigable loss. ... cultural references, which, while they firmly place the book in context, are a little overdone.)

"The Fall" by Rachael Blok

Prologue - someone's on a cathedral roof. If only they hadn't answered the phone. It all began 50 years before.

Willow Eliot (she works in a museum) delivers an exhibition (her first) to a cathedral. It's late - 1 am. She discovers that a body has fallen from the roof. Suicide? Policeman Martin (aged 45-50, from Rotterdam) is phoned. A 35 y.o. mother had fallen from the tower decades earlier.

Willow goes to her B&B which she has for the weekend. Her parents and ill grandmother (Noni) are expected. She has a dominant, married twin sister Flis who's going to be married this week in the cathedral to Sunny, a local policeman. Willow has recently split from Otis, who she'd been with for 2 years. She meets Theo again, an ex of Flis who she had a fling with.

The dead man, Joel, was about 80 - an ex-verger. His son Michael, a clergyman, lives locally with wife Heather. Michael seems to have a secret.

Willow's shown up the tower (St Alban's) by Noah, who tries to kiss her. She escapes after a tussle. Later he falls off the tower.

Flis disappears. Her smashed phone is found.

The exhibit material came from a collection by someone who received treatment in a mental hospital. Willow had collection material from other mental patients.

Joel was a wifebeater.

Jass (Joel's grandson) is seen at night dropping letters into a lake. He was also known to have argued with the 3 dead/missing people in their final hours.

Years before, a 7 y.o. twin girl, Alice, was put in a mental home for pushing her mother off the tower, though actually she'd been trying to stop Joel accost her mother.

Jass, 24, got £200k from Joel. Joel has been asking money from cured mental hospital patients in return for his silence. Jass had discovered this. Joel was trying to keep him silent. Michael has been spending money, knowing that he'll get $2 million went his father dies.

When Alice comes out of the hospital she changes her name and eventually runs a B&B. When she meets Flis she realises she's the twin sister of Flis's mother. Flis is found, Noah recovers, and the wedding goes ahead.

Other reviews

• goodreads

"Caught" by Harlan Coben

Prologue - Dan, separated from Genna for years (she has a 6 y.o. Carrie with her new husband. Dan babysits) was a foster child. He went to Princeton. He teaches sport in a foster home. Chinna calls him. He goes to her house. A TV crew is there, with reporter Wendy. She'd pretended to be a young girl and had asked him to come.

Marcia and Ted's oldest daughter Hayley has disappeared.

3 months later - At a pre-trial, Wendy is questioned. She'd been married to John (PhD in psychology). He had died because of Ariana Nasbro, an alcoholic who's soon to be released and is sending her letters. Their son is Charlie. She's sacked. When Dan is released, innocent, he tries to get in touch with her, saying he was set up. She visits Dan, who's in hiding. While she's with him he's shot. She recognises the murderer - Ed Greeson. She runs away, contacts the police. There's no body or weapon by the time she returns.

Pops, Wendy's right-wing motorbiking father-in-law, stays with them.

Hayley's phone is found in Dan's room.

Rumours are spread about Wendy online. She discovers that Dan regularly visited the Dean's house at Princeton. 4 out of the group of 5 he belonged to (Phil Turnbull, etc) at Princeton have been disgraced by scandal within a year. Only Kelvin, a wierdo maths genius, hasn't suffered. He's gone mad, mentioning scarface and the hunt. Wendy finds Crista living in the Dean's house. While students were on a "scavenger hunt" looking for the Dean's underpants in the house there'd been an accident and she was badly scarred. Phil took the blame because he was rich. His family paid for Crista's silence. Dan had taken pity on her and used to visit. She'd forgiven them.

When Phil recently wanted support from his friends he didn't get it. So he framed them. But he didn't framed Dan. Maybe he was really guiltly, which would stop Wendy feeling guilty about framing him. Phil kills himself.

Wendy works out that Genna planted Hayley's mobile at Dan's. Hayley had died of alcohol poisoning at a party in Genna's house. Putting the blame for her death on an already dead person seemed a tidy solution.

Pops forgives Nasbro. Ed had faked Dan's death. He's volunteering in Angola. Ed puts Wendy through to him, begging forgiveness. Which he gives.

Other reviews

• Brett Milam (Wendy’s arc from a Nancy Grace-like character to someone who does become invested in figuring out the truth ... Joblessness, directionless, hopelessness, manhood, all of these together are central themes creating the overarching theme: Fathers and husbands without direction.)

"Potting shed murder" by Paula Sutton

An audio book. Cozy.

Prologue: James and Daphne are in a car in London, battling over parking spaces when they see a balaclava'd man with a shotgun.

James are Daphne moved 10 months ago from London to Pudding Corner, a village near Kings Lynn. Their kids Archie, Finn and Immie, went to fee-paying schools. They're struggling financially. They live in Cranberry Farmhouse. Dr Oakes is their closest neighbour - he gives them home-grown veg and knows the local lore. Centuries ago, Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder general, roamed the area. Daphne's about the only black in the area, but that's not a problem. The locals don't like second-home owners and travellers. They're suspicious of Minerva who lives in the woods with a few others. Her son Silvanus is avoided by the other kids. Daphne has sympathy for them.

Sisters Nancy and Patsy Warburton run the local shop.

Maryanne is a friend of Daphne. She's also from London and is strapped for cash. She wants her child to get a scholarship, but Charles, the head of the local junior school, dislikes her, so won't give a good reference. He has an allotment. His younger wife Augusta misses intimacy.

Silvanus looks rather like the headmaster. The headmaster's found dead in the allotment having told his wife something. Someone wearing a yellow-lined coat was seen with him in the allotment. A will is found, giving money to Minerva. Minerva and Silvanus disappear.

Minerva returns, revealing that she's Charles' daughter. She's known since Silvanus started school. Charles learnt more recently. Minerva's mother and Charles were together before he married. He died of a drug-induced heart attack - perhaps a natural drug that Minerva and her friends know about?

We learn that Patsy and Charles were childhood friends who played with commune friends. Nancy seemed to like Charles too, but actually she loved Serafina, a commune girl. Charles got Clover, another commune girl, pregnant. She didn't want to tie brilliant Charles down.

Daphne goes to Dr Oates house. She knows that he's an expert in poisonous plants. She sees a photo and realises that he went to Medical School with Augusta. He doesn't let her leave. He says that Augusta was top of the class - a catch. When he brought her to the village she saw Charles' lack of interest as a challenge, seduced him, said she was pregnant and married him, Dr Oates as best man. She gave up her career, carrying on with Dr Oates.

Witnesses' assumptions confused their notions about what happened on the night of the murder (for instance, people thought Charles and Minerva were having an affair). We learn that Dr Oates killed Charles, thinking that was what Augusta wanted. He tries to kill Daphne, but her London self-defence lessons prove useful.

Augusta's the least believable person, but the book chugs along well enough. Eyes can show "sadness, shame, and regret". A woman can cry "miserably to herself" and think to herself.

"Magma (No.84, 2022)"

Theme: Physics. Some of the poets are way more qualified in science/medicine than I am, others (I suspect) know a lot less. I most like "One by One" by Peter Daniels (not a physicist) and "Never leave the ship" by Rebecca Watts. There are many poems that I don't understand. When forms are used, I find them obscure. I think I've missed something

• "It might just" has 17 long-lined couplets, all ending in "bless" or "blessing". It's not a strict contraint, nor a difficult one to satisfy if padding and lack of variety of the words' usage is allowed. Why bother?
• "Aerodynamics of a Domestic" is 18 lines long. The number of times the word "geese" is used in each line is 1,0,2,1,2,0,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1. The pattern for the use of "argument[s]" is 1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,1,2,1,1,0,1,0. There are other repetitions too. I don't think labelling the text "poetry" makes the repetition any less tedious.
• "How to be 2-D" might be shaped. A table-leg cut in half? The content gives me too few clues. Linebreaks include "de-/pth", "ba-/lloon", and "f-ormless" so some device is being used. An acrostic? Syllabics? No.

In a prose piece, the redundancy in "a redshift toward/ the red end of the spectrum" (p.60) would be criticised.

Some of the reviews include phrases I don't understand, or don't see the point of, or are needlessly fancy -

• "Words, like the mind, are allowed to roam where the mind is perhaps not"
• "The language is descriptive and located, astutely coppiced at times to disrupt socially constructed narratives of viewing plant life"
• The poems "mime the undoing of human centrality"
• "This is a quiet and unassuming collection that at times can seem obscure and cryptic"

Reviewers, even if they think that readers might find poems "puzzling and inaccessible" or if they "want a narrative that isn't there" don't blame the poet.

"Forgetting is how we survive" by David Frankel (Salt, 2023)

Stories from The Bristol Short Short Prize Anthology, Structo, London Magazine, etc. The shortest is about a page long. Most are about a dozen pages.

• Ghost story - 1 page.
• Sink rate - A woman on a beach watches a plane crash, one that she could have been on. I first saw this in the Bristol competition anthology, then in BBSS 2022 and liked it there too. It reminds me of Mark Haddon's "The Pier Falls". It's online at Barcelona Review
• Shooting season - Wayne is driving the estate's tractor to where he's mending a bridge. Niall, the owner's son, is hosting university friends for a shooting party. One guest, Lara, has caught Wayne's eye - tattoos, blazing hair. While he's working, she appears with Niall's 12 y.o. brother Lucas. She asks if he could give her car a tow, then leaves. Lucas tells him that Lara is his brother's girlfriend. Lucas takes the tractor keys and mucks about. He falls in the river. Wayne pulls him out and tried desperately, vainly, to revive him. The shooting party gather around him. Lara and Niall aren't there. [I like it. Lots of craft.]
• Downstream the water darkens - The first-person is an early teens boy on holiday on a farm with his uncle and aunt's family, including Kristin. Perhaps he has no mother. He's taking photos to show his father what he did (he has a camera with flash-cubes). In the village with Kristin he sees a teenage boy and girl kissing and takes a photo. The boy threatens him. Kristin saves him - she thinks that the "I" is a coward. He shop-lifts a pen-knife. As a dare he follows the river as far as he can. He has to paddle through the river. He sees a fabled 6 ft pike, forgets to photograph it. He sees a floating carrier bag, cuts it open with his pen-knife, photographs the bleeding, broken-boned thing inside. [I like this too. The ending may be a bit of a cop-out.]
• Meadowlands - He works on an estate, drinks (often alone) in the evenings. He finds peace in the tree plantation, a ruined croft. He lives in a caravan with Doyle, an ex-convict. They have a moody friendship. There was a problem at the local pub. He fears a woman's body (she worked at the chippy) will be found in the loch. As the police are about to question them he hopes that Doyle's past will count. Doyle asks him for stories about the townies who go at night to the loch.
• Empty rooms - Andrea's parents are estate agents. When she has keys to an empty house she calls Danny (about 17) and they sneak into it. They explore, drink, have sex, make-believe its their home. In one house the phone rings. When Andrea picks it up a man says her name. There's excitement about being caught. He suggests to her that she's having the same sort of fun with someone else. After that, he never sees her again. He moves away. 30 years later he returns. She's dead. The house they last visited is for sale - she lived there. He visits it, imagines what it was like living there, sees the children's room.
• The memory system - When the narrator was 8 her mother took her to stay with her grandfather at the top of a tower block for 2 months while the mother got better. She'd never seen him before. She didn't need to go to school. They only went out at night. 2 chains and 3 locks on the door. Blackout curtains. She wasn't allowed in his bedroom. There were rumours that he was a pervert. Each night they went out and had a picnic down the road. He's dead now. Her mother died soon after. 25 years later she uses the walk home as the basis of her locii-based memory device. He was scared on the walk back. His bedroom was a darkroom. Big photos of views from his window were on his walls. [I like this too!]
• Sink - A great sink-hole appears just when Jen leaves Roy. He loses his job. The buildings around the growing rim ("Holeside") are evacuated. Squatters, flea-markets and trendy pop-ups appear. He phones Jen when drunk, promising to reform. He meets a women who's interested in him but lets her go [I like the sink-hole-related details more than Roy's storyline.]
• The killing tree - One page. The persona buries criminal condemned to death. The relatives conduct the execution.
• Heaven - Chrissy, 17, lives on a caravan site with her mum. Her brother did 4 years before. Toby and old Annie live in a caravan too. Her boyfriend Arron has a van. When Toby accused Chrissy of killing his dog, Arron protected her. She's working hard at school so that she can leave the place. Her mum tells Chrissy that Annie had to give her kids to Social Services. Annie tells Chrissy that she killed the dogs because Toby treated them so badly. She advices Chrissy to get away and start a new life. Chrissy posts an anonymous letter to Toby. Soon, police and paramedics are outside Toby and Annie's caravan.
• The Unmaking - Christian (UK, backpacking) and Tegan (NZ), both in their early 20s, are walking along a beach after a storm. They met at a beach party weeks before. Their relationship has become a bit tense. They see a small stranded whale. While he tries to keep it alive, she runs for help. She returns with a group for people who cut the whale up. They offer him the most valuable part - the penis. Years later he remembers the incident. He's forgotten why they broke up, but he recalls for firelit face that first night, and the way she said his name. [I don't like the paragraph where he dreams he's in a commuter bus on a rainy day dreaming he's on a remote sunny beach.]
• Stay - Hollins is looking for his dog. His wife is Helen. "The boy" used to spoil the dog. The dog strays onto the neighbour's land. The neighbour goes around with a shotgun. He's tied the dog up. He warns Hollins that next time he'll protect his animals by shooting the dog. Hollins says sorry, it was the boy's dog. The neighbour lets him off. Hollins feels humiliated having to use that excuse.
• Hitler was an artist too - The narrator works in an old warehouse with Alan and Wayne. When their dictatorial boss Bert discovered that the narrator drew, he was less strict, telling the narrator that he painted. Bert tells the narrator's colleagues that it's the narrator's last day - he's been there a year. The narrator had been keeping the news secret. The narrator likes Claire. He protects her from Bert's gropes. She has a psycho boyfriend otherwise she'd be with the narrator. They've talked about a future together. But her boyfriend picks her up in his BNW. The narrator's going to start at Art College. Bert thinks it's a waste of time, full of hippies, and suggests that the narrator might one day take over his job.

Cold rivers. Watching lovers. Living in caravans. Dogs.

I much prefer this to (for example) the latest A.L.Kennedy collection.

"The awkward black man" by Walter Mosley (Wiedenfield & Nicolson, 2020)

• The good news is - He's fat, divorced from Blythe, now with Lana though he's started seeing Rachel. He starts losing weight at last. It's operable cancer. Blythe distances herself, scared of cancer, later asking for more money from him. Lana finds out about Rachel. He falls in love with his nurse Maura and asks her to marry him. He discovers she's stolen from him but that doesn't matter.
• Pet fly - Rufus Coombs works in the postroom of "Carter's Home" with other blacks, though he has a degree. He delivers mail to Lana (the quiet one) and Mona, identical white twins. Ernie, black, has been promoted out of the group. The bosses are white. Getting home one night he decides not to kill a fly that he'd normally squash. He starts confiding in it. He starts chatting up Lana, leaving gifts on her desk. He's about to give her a $347 bonsai tree when she formally complains of sexual harassment. He's going to be sacked. When he has a meeting with a manager, the manager says that Ernie's spoken up for him, and the manager wants to put Rufus on a trainee management course. On the way home Rufus finds some vials of crack. He puts the dead fly in a vial and buries it in the roots of the bonsai tree
• Almost Alyce -1979. Albert was doing ok at college until he fell in love with brown-skinned Alyce who left him for Roald. His father Thyme left his wife Georgia for Betty. Albert moved back in with his mother, became a labourer. His mother died, his father sold the house. For 20+ years he drank, lived in the streets, did casual labour. At 53 he stopped working. In New York, a girl nothing like Alyce except for style asked him to distract security guards while she shoplifted. He invited him to live in her smart squat. When 2 thugs tried to attacked her, he got in their way. She shot the thugs dead. He woke up in hospital, his sister at his bedside. She invited him home. He said yes - he'd amassed $83,297.
• Starting over - Now he's 60, each day is like a new start for Jared. He had 3 kids and a wife Marguerite. She left him for Gary then soon returned. A son married an Alaskan and had a child [why do we would to know this?]. When Holly, an intern, says that he should live life, he smokes outside their house. She wants a divorce. He has a kid with Holly who then found a boyfriend. His wife's cancer returns. He helps her.
• Leading from the affair - Lassiter, 59, asks his girfriend Jool about Jon Silver. She leaves him. Lassister sees a therapist because he feels his life is going nowhere. He's been going to another therapist for 30 years. Jool keeps phoning Lassiter. She says she's not seen Jon for 6 months. Lassiter asks Kara, 29, a waitress, out. They start sleeping together. Kara visits Lassiter. They make love. She tells him the Jim has returned to her and they're getting married. Kara breaks up with Lassister - he's too intense. He tells the therapists about each other. They both stop seeing him. He starts a "Broken Hearts" online magazine which is so successful he has no time for a social life.
• Cut, cut, cut - Martin (a plastic surgeon) and Marlee meet on a blind date and sleep together. He's not much to look at, but he's considerate. When his wife disappeared with a friend of his who was researching gene modification, the police thought he might be to blame. There's a flash-forward - "Years later, after Martin had been sentenced to 117 years in prison ...". She keeps seeing him, taking on other lovers too. The police interview her, saying he's still a suspect. This excited her. She sees him daily. He invites her to his lab. A superbeing is there. He says that there were many failed attempts, and 12,306 successes that were living in secret. He's already given her the treatment. She's growing taller and wiser. She leaves and tells the police. She hides away in Australia, evolving.
• Between storms - Michael uses the excuse of a brewing storm to isolate himself in his flat. He becomes famous, telling his fans that they should do the same.
• The black woman in the Chinese hat - Rufus (20) sees a pretty, older woman sunbathing in New York. They start talking, have a meal. She has 2 boyfriends - a cop and an ex-con. They go on Statin Island Ferry - all they can afford. He climaxes while she pets him.
• Local hero - There's a lot of family tree info on the first page. The main character, Stewart is nothing special. His cousin Sherman is clever and popular. Sherman invites him on a double date and Stewart loses his virginity. Sherman dies in a streetfight because his lover's husband hit her and he hit him back. Stewart begins to live Sherman's life. Sherman's mum says that he and Sherman had the same father. He takes a gun from a mugger and threatens to kill him.
• Otis - Reginald (Crash) is clever. At school he helps pupils cheat. Thinking he's about to be expelled, 15, he runs off with a tent. He meets Otis, who's been expelled many times. Crash thinks Otis understands him. Otis kisses him. In the night Otis steals all his stuff. The police take Crash home. Years pass. His twin brother becomes a soldier. Their mother left. His brother dies of a heart attack. Crash tracks down his mother. find that she's with an old schoolfriend who recovered from cancer after she cared for him. Crash makes money creating a web site to help kids pass exams. When he discovers the Otis has died, he goes to the funeral. Otis's mother said he kept talking about Crash, the only person who took him seriously.
• Showdown on the Hudson - Felix, 16, lives in New York. Billy, a black cowboy his age, arrives from Texas. He works looking after police horses in Central Park. He has a duel with Nacogdoches (a rich delinquint who dresses like a cowboy - no bullets), winner decided by looking at the video. Billy wins, entitling him to take Felix Nacogdoches' white girlfriend out. He does, innocently. Nacogdoches later punches her. They duel again, this time with bullets. Nacogdoches dies. Billy flees. Years later, with a Ph.D in literature, Felix gets letters from him, thanking him for his friendship. Felix welcomes the clarity of his morality.
• Breath - He wakes confused, breathless. He thinks he's an NYC prof. He's in a hospital room with 3 other old blacks. He's had an asthma attack and a heart attack. Colleagues arrive to get him released.
• Reply to a dead man - Roger's brother Seth died 6 months before. Lots of family tree info. Roger had been too poor to attend the funeral. A messenger arrives, saying that Seth paid then to give this delayed note. It says that the white girlfriend he had when he was 17 had been pregnant when Roger's parents forced him to dump her for race reasons. Seth had been keeping in touch. The girl died a year ago. Roger visits her daughter, likes her, and gets another message from the messenger saying Seth has $137k to give to the daughter. Roger, decides he'd like to apply to be a messenger.
• The letter - Frank's wife Corrine has white/black parents, is 41 (he's 55, black) and earns 3 times what he earns. He's had 3 affairs. His father killed himself when Frank was a kid. He intercepts a letter to Corrine from a man who has talked to her about things that matter to her. He's sacked from work for incompetence, not telling his family. After 4 months he writes a letter to his wife saying they don't talk any more. He starts living rough, ends up fighting for his life in hospital. His son appears at his bedside. If he lives, he'll return home.
• Haunted - When 68 y.o. Paul Henry's 1000th story is (like all the others) rejected, he's so grumpy that his partner Mira leaves him. After he dies, his hatred of editor Clark Heinemann keeps his spirit alive. Mira goes to him asking for Henry's stories to be published. She sleeps with him, he publishes a story, she sleeps with him nightly. They marry and have a child they call Paul Henry. Clark gives talks about Henry, has an affair. The boy can see the ghost of his father. They chat. The father thought it was hatred kept him haunting, but he realises he's going to be around for a while yet.
• The sin of dreams - A start-up company offer transmigration of souls (downloading into a computing then uploading into a new body). There's a court case about whether there's only one soul though there may be multiple copies - if a new body kills the old one, is it murder? [Chris Beckett for example could have done so much better than this]
• An unlikely series of conversations - Laertes Jackson (50-something - he has an ex-wife Bonita, 35, and an 11 y.o. daughter Medea), a bank teller, goes to an interview at MMM and fails because he argues about the term "African-American". He's had no dates for 6 years, since the divorce. He joins a dating site and gives essay-style replies. MMM's boss offers him a job on the strength of these replies. He waits to reply, spending months.

Lots of overweight men, family trees, men with younger wives, broken families, 5- and 6-digit numbers. I wasn't impressed by any of the stories.

Other reviews

• arefugefromlife (Several of these stories were just depressing, though. Some even seemed pointless. Rufus and Frank both appeared multiple times, enough that I learned that I didn’t want their lives, even though they proved to be equal parts entertaining, exciting, depressing and super, super awkward. Another thing to note is that I’ve never been a fan of the author’s science fiction—mostly it seems too far out there, too unrealistic, even silly—and the few scifi reads within didn’t disprove this. My favorite stories were: Almost Alyce ... Between Storms ... Local Hero ... Reply to a Dead Man )
• L.D. Barnes (The internal dialogue of each man is different, yet the message is the same. “I have been injured and/or abused by people and/or the world.” Each one he talks about is intelligent, yet fragile. Sensitive, yet doggedly resilient.)
• John Paul (Mosley imbues each and every character with an astonishing degree of detail and genealogical backstory (often rendered within a single, almost impossibly informative sentence) that makes many of these stories read more like biographies in miniature. ... The sole exception to this almost hyper-real approach is the sci-fi-leaning “Cut”.)