Peter Levine's strong collection of linked stories, The Appearance of a Hero, focuses on the mysterious and charismatic Tom Mahoney. To the guys, he "was the man everyone wanted to have at parties, meet up with for a drink to talk about sports, figure out their spring brackets." To the many women who pass through his life, Tom is "a man who any woman would look at and think he was handsome, and would be proud to be with." Under his wealthy father's watchful and wishful eyes, he is destined to "become more powerful, wiser, more fully the man he is beginning to demonstrate the qualities of."
Levine's stories reveal a grim, Raymond Carver-like world where his rich young urban characters live vapid lives and Tom appears as a kind of mysterious Jay Gatsby hero. They want to be who they think he is, they want to be his friend, they want to sleep with him, or they want him to help them find a job or a running mate or workout partner. They are in law school or between jobs, they are couples who "have sex once a month, sometimes less--it seemed enough," or they are "just two guys having cocktails: slacks and shirts and gleaming black shoes and thin belts and thin bodies." Ironically, none of the stories are told from Tom's perspective--when he dies young of a heart attack, he is only what others make him out to be. And though Levine's world is dark, this collection shines. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.