THE SCHOOL OF LOVE: Short Stories

by Phyllis Barber ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1990

A slim first collection of 13 stories (including several short-shorts) set mostly in the contemporary American West: the best pieces are impressionistic eulogies to lost love or lyrical reminiscences, while a few others are solid slice-of-life chronicles with an edge. ""The Glider,"" a delicate story about a woman grieving alone on a ranch, harassed by a coarse tradesman as she lives with the memory of her father and with the white glider that represents him, manages to be easily metaphorical without strain, though even here the prose occasionally becomes arch: her father, for example, was ""dismissed from the school of life on Highway 89."" ""Oh Say, Can You See"" is a vivid reminiscence about a family that moves west for work on the Hoover Dam and later travels into the desert to see an atom-bomb test. ""Baby Birds"" deftly contrasts a mother's present-day troubles with her addicted son to his younger sensitive empathy with birds. In ""Radio KENO,"" disoriented Chloe drives to Las Vegas, where she visits old lover Wagner, who now lives as a born-again Christian in the suburbs; the story succeeds by avoiding clichÉs or didacticism. Likewise, ""Criminal Justice,"" with an edge of black humor, is about a woman taken to jail for the first time when she's arrested in a stolen vehicle (through no fault of her own) and can't manage to explain her predicament to anyone she telephones. Of the short-shorts, ""Trees"" is the most striking: ""I heard my trees screaming last night,"" in fact, is the book's best opening line. The rest all have their pleasures, but they sometimes slide into cuteness or unnecessary detail. A promising debut collection that impresses not so much with its glitter or polish as with its quiet and moving detail.

Pub Date: March 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Univ. of Utah Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION