THROUGH THE SAFETY NET

by Charles Baxter ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1985

Although author of a previous collection (Harmony of the World, 1984), Baxter provides us here with what might be called a learner's volume of stories: the eleven pieces start out with the familiarity and shallowness of the ""best"" literary-quarterly fiction; but some of the later stories succeed actually in taking on a life of their own, sometimes quite wonderfully. The first four do nothing to distinguish the volume. In ""Stained Glass,"" the figures are cut-outs. ""Winter Journey"" is a tired academic satire. ""Saul and Patsy Are Getting Comfortable in Michigan"" tries to be about Jewish identity but lumbers under the weight of familiarities. ""Media Event"" is dogged, would-be sociology (""I am not strange. I am a product of this society, just as you are""). In ""Talk Show"" (sensitive boy learns about death), ""Cataract"" (aging real estate man quits work and takes up painting), and ""The Eleventh Floor"" (wealthy, jaded father envies his unpolished son's youth and sexuality), the writing is clean and vigorous, and the eye shrewd, but the voice remains an inheritance from J.D. Salinger. The title story, about nuclear holocaust, is merely titillating and pulp-magazine-spooky.""Surprised by Joy,"" however (a couple's grief for their dead child), rises unexpectedly from commonplace to a grim personal reality. ""A Late Sunday Afternoon by the Huron"" gracefully surpasses its literary premises and is full of that rarely authentic thing--tenderness. And ""Gryphon"" (a substitute teacher sweeps in and shows the kids, suddenly, the whole of life itself is both moving and magnificent. These three stories aren't, in the end, imitations of anything; they deserve praise, and they deserve every reader who still values the genuine in fiction.

Pub Date: July 1, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION