Night Driving: Stories

Clashes of will and emotion trigger most of the 11 quietly powerful tales, set in northern Michigan, that comprise VandeZande's fictional debut. In the beautiful story ``Child Rearing,'' Oedipal jealousies erupt when an 18-year-old tries to prevent his recently widowed young mother from falling in love. In ``Road Kill,'' the varied responses of three co-workers who find an injured deer on the highway define and polarize their interrelationships. An undertow of violence ripples through this Midwestern landscape: an alcoholic National Guardsman seeks revenge on the waitress who jilts him; family members come to blows over a high-school graduate's decision to work in his father's lumber mill. Not all of the narrator's voices work equally well, yet VandeZande shows deep sympathy for his small-town or rural people even as they lash out wildly or defeat themselves. (Sept.)