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Steve Almond's fiction has appeared in Missouri Review, Playboy, Southern Review, All-Story and Zoetrope. He lives in Boston, where he teaches creative writing at Boston College and Emerson college.
Steve Almond's collection of 12 short stories marks an electrifying debut. The title story concerns a young man who moves to El Paso to become a journalist and soon becomes the paper's rock critic. His college girlfriend decides to join him, but he has already started another relationship with a local lifeguard who holds a special fascination for him. It becomes a matter of time as to when the situation will end in disaster. When the inevitable happens, it almost comes as a relief, particularly since there is no contrived plot twist or clever-clever punchline. The author seems to understand perfectly that the short story form need not be full of tortuous surprises, but must simply capture a moment or a situation perfectly. Without exception, this is what Almond does, focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on contemporary relationships. He slips between registers (a fading Casanova, a confused boy in the summer before college, the self-destructive woman who fancies the smarmy IT guy), with confidence and apparent ease, bringing each of his characters to brief but vivid life. He draws the reader in with evocative descriptions of place, allowing us almost to smell the stale beer in the bar or feel the dry desert breeze. Most of all, he allows the reader to share in all the ecstasy, loss and melancholia of love and all that pretends to be love. It is difficult to find anyone in the stories who might be said to be right for their partner (or the object of their desire) but, as in real life, they either cannot see it or cannot admit it, and this fuels and drives the narratives. It is impossible to choose a highlight from a collection of such consistently high quality. Do not be put off by the terrible title or the frank approach to sex, and add this volume to your library. (Kirkus UK)
