Monday, December 29, 2014

Many Seconds into the Future: Ten Stories / John J. Clayton 181 pp.

So much for preconceptions. This is an author I had never heard of, published by Texas Tech University Press, part of their Modern Jewish Literature and Culture Series.  I would never have picked this up off a display table (the cover art and overall packaging are not appealing), but the stories were truly lovely.  Seemingly narrow in scope - upper middle-class, middle-aged men, mostly, at turning points in their lives, seeking authenticity.  Sounds boring.  But they had a brisk directness and keen insight that was refreshing.  My favorites were "Getting out in One Piece," a celebration of the impact of an eccentric aunt on her nephew, struggling to escape a dysfunctional family, and "Reading to Jacob" in which an agnostic man mourns the loss of his observant younger brother.

It's to Clayton's credit that he handles a topic nearly guaranteed to provoke my gag reflex - that of the comfortable man who can't keep certain parts of his anatomy to himself - with sensitivity and even cleverness.

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