Rather, paper-thin products: but these tissue-weight tales from
poet-turned-thriller-writer Hall (Under Cover of Daylight, 1987);
Tropical Freeze, 1989) are not without their airy charms. One new
story, "Arabella," sits among eight others reprinted from literary
quarterlies, and it's the clunker of the pack: a maudlin tale of an
old blind woman who imagines her husband's loving voice speaking to
her from a "battery-powered talking clock." More representative of
the collection's overall wry appeal is "Miami Beach, Kentucky," in
which an eccentric town-father wages a campaign to change the name
of Sinking Fork, KY, to that of the Florida city - and succeeds so
well that the air begins "swarming with new smells. . .They weren't
Kentucky smells. Fishy, fruity, salty smells." That note of light
wonder reprises in other stories - in "An American Beauty," about a
man who finds a rose growing atop his bald skull, and in "The
Miracles," a fantasy about a football coach who teaches his team's
boosters some cheers that send listeners into a defenseless trance.
Tougher sentiments inform "Survival Week," a sage coming-of-age
tale, and the title story, in which bumptious humor fades into
sardonicism as Hall deftly chronicles the misadventures of an
itinerant plumber. The three remaining tales all deal
self-consciously with the arts: "Poetic Devices" and "The Electric
Poet," each a mocking story about the politics of literary success;
and, far more resonant, "Gas," in which a successful conceptual
clothes designer returns to her rural family and roots. Slight,
nearly translucent tales that expose Hall's poetical nerves - but
not his newfound muscle as one of the finest Florida thriller
writers. (Kirkus Reviews)
Nine stories deal with a cosmopolitan woman's return to her rural
roots, a writers conference, summer camp, a husband's ghost, a
young plumber, baldness, and small town life.
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