Abstract

The four long stories in this collection focus on men struggling with questions of responsibility--personal, familial, moral--that characterize their relationships with others: the betrayal felt by a teenage theatre usher once he realizes the projectionist he admires is an unfaithful and abusive husband; the anxieties faced by a young man after his partially artificial teeth come loose just before he proposes to his girlfriend; the strange connection made between a displaced university instructor and an immigrant taxi driver; and the new hope found by a young father during the intrusive visit of his bizarre, born-again father-in-law. All of these men face significant and often unexpected dilemmas as they negotiate their ways through contemporary urban lives that are suddenly revealed to be different than the ones they envisioned themselves living. These stories reposition these characters on the precipice of new discoveries about their lives, wherein which their recognition of the realities of present time and place is a necessary first tentative step towards maturity.