The 10th book by Irish writer David Park (The Light of Amsterdam) offers profound and observational slice-of-life vignettes with a wryness that speaks to the deep psychological issues that men often face--isolation, alienation, regret, suffering--in modern relationships. The 13 stories display a literary complexity that has become a hallmark of Park's writing.
In "Boxing Day," 17-year-old Robbie visits his manic-depressive mother the day after Christmas and is confronted by painful memories of the circumstances that have led to her despondency. Some of Park's stories have surreal elements of escapism, as in "The Strong Silent Type," which describes a date between a girl and a dummy. "I want to apply words to her hurt," the dummy muses, "like a salve as all things I need to say course uncontrollably though my being, rising and falling on a whelming tide of love, but no matter how hard I try, none can breach the sewn seam of my mouth." A War of the Roses game in "The Bloggers" exhibits to humorous effect how a lack of gender empathy negatively affects modern marriages. Park explores the grief and loneliness of an empty nester in "Skype." It is "Crossing the River," however, that stands as Park's most personal and affective. Dedicated to his mother, it is narrated by the Keeper, who ferries the souls of the newly dead across the river, and of the heartrending conversation he has with his Alzheimer's-suffering mother in their final journey together. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant