SMALL FAMILY WITH ROOSTER

by Daniel Asa Rose ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 19, 1988

In these 20 spare, snappy stories, Rose (Flipping For It, 1987) touches the nerve that lies just below the surface of love and domesticity. Dreams, the sea, storms, and small children figure repeatedly, and Rose's protagonists are most often young husbands and fathers--reasonable types--who jitter on the edge of heartbreak and gloom. At his best, Rose turns moments of domestic drama into something more elegiac, as in the title story when a young family's Christmas visit home stirs up waves of old sorrow that threaten to drench them all. In ""Stranger in the House,"" a man with the flu is left to care for his small son on a long, rainy fall afternoon while his wife dashes, too eagerly, off to the city for another ""matinee."" Rose sets the scene precisely for this story's growing mood of despair: in the rain, the little yard is ""foamy with foliage""; a ""bloated pumpkin"" sits in the living room. At nap time, the small boy climbs out of his bed again and again, until, finally, the mere squeak of the crib springs is enough to topple all reason. And in ""The Escargot Story,"" a man, vacationing with his wife and children, grapples with the weight of his own happiness versus the guilt, regret, and other nameless feelings that linger from a bygone love affair. In Rose's pared-down prose, every moment counts. These stories almost tick with energy. But, occasionally, the timer runs down and no bomb goes off. Stories like ""Katey Foster's Two Boys"" and ""The Goodbye Present"" never deliver what they promise; others--""So Long Million Miles,"" ""Summer Heat""--just flicker by without leaving a mark. But when he's all there, wise and mournful and bleakly comical, Rose can be a regular blast.

Pub Date: Sept. 19, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION