From Publishers Weekly
Six dexterously shaped stories make up this volume, winner of the 1985 Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction. Boswell's believable characters are involved in situations that are sometimes painfully true-to-life. One story concerns an American soldier who loses both feet while fighting in the Korean War; another tells of a black New York City policeman who visits his in-laws in Tennessee, where he is tormented by his fear that he is a racist and by the discovery that he loves his wife's sister. The author's ability to create affecting relationships is evident in such entries as "Kentucky," which deals with the growing pains of three brothers, and the title story, in which a young man returns home from college and tries to save his girlfriend from her destructive lifestyle. A satisfying, if at times disturbing, collection. January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This collection of six short stories (four of which were previously published in literary magazines) won the 1985 Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction, judged by Tim O'Brien. Boswell's stories depict the distress and confusion of people entangled in difficult situations: "Little Bear" and "The Right Thing" express the pain of combat veterans (in Korea and Vietnam, respectively); the title story, "Flipflops," and "The Darkness of Love" portray the anxieties and frustrations of lovers. Compact and controlled, Boswell's style frequently succeeds in re-creating an atmosphere of tension. Recommended for collections of serious fiction. Sherrie Tuck, Episcopal Div. Sch./Weston Sch. of Theology Libs., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
