Dennis Vannatta

Characters generally on the edges of society feature in these stories set in Little Rock and the surrounding area, which I read out loud with my wife in said surrounding area during the Great Pandemic of 2020. I think my favorite of them is History 232, set in Central High during the cancelled school year of 1958 as the state tried to avoid desegregation of its public schools. The story centers on the relationship between a white maintenance supervisor and a black maintenance worker retained to keep up the empty high school, and illustrates how even someone who not unreasonably sees themselves as well intentioned can still fail to understand the view from another man's shoes.

Other stories that stick out for me are Afterglow, in which a man is surprised to find himself in the middle of a couple's sexual kink, and To the Fordyce Bathhouse, which reflects on love, regret, the decay of age, loneliness, and ends the collection by striking an uplifting note.… (plus d'informations)