Copy cats : stories /

This is another fine book in the distinguished Flannery O'Connor Award series for single-author collections of short fiction. Many of the earlier winners of this annual contest (e.g., Mary Hood, Antonya Nelson, Ha Jin) have gone on to subsequent publication and much acclaim, and Crouse's collection is similar in its level of accomplishment and likely interest from readers. Crouse's better stories include a novella, "Click," a third-person account of a photographer torn between his fiancee and a gritty prostitute with whom he has developed a professional, and then a much more personal, relationship. Other standout stories include "Crybaby," about a married man compelled to return briefly to the town and drug scene of his youth, and "The Ugliest Boy," about a working-class teenager given to sudden bursts of violence, whose doppelganger (the title character) has a face that has been ruined by fire. The most atypical story in the collection, "Code," is also the funniest and most stimulating--a first-person account of an organization man working in a profession that is never named but about which he and his colleagues riff endlessly and enigmatically. Crouse's central characters tend to be a self-conscious lot, but usually their musings pay off. The writing and editing of this collection are flawless; teachers and students at all levels will doubtless find this a stimulating collection. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All readers; all levels. M. W. Cox University of Pittsburgh

This mixed bag comprises an impressive extended piece of fiction and seven uneven short stories. In "Click," the well-developed long story, an emotionally scarred photographer threatens his relationship with his fiance while working on a documentary about a prostitute with whom he becomes involved. The shorter stories feature more distant protagonists who often fight themselves as they work through personal or professional dilemmas. "Code" follows a corporate drone trying to interpret the signals of impending layoffs and business failure in his dying company's final days. "The Ugliest Boy" offers a twisted view of adolescent romance as a handsome boy who was once raped by two men struggles to date a beautiful rich girl while her brother, a disfigured and deeply damaged burn victim, looks on as an unusually interested observer. In "Crybaby," a young man realizes that the book he wrote, based on people from his childhood, has irrevocably altered his relationships when he returns to his old neighborhood. While each of the shorter stories has considerable charm, the longer piece gives Crouse enough space to slowly develop complex characters and a compelling plot while many of the central figures in the shorter pieces remain shadowy. Crouse's fluency with the darker sides of the average human life, however, makes this a promising, though inconsistent, debut. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.