White Boys and River Girls

In these nine sharply affecting stories, Gover reviews the hard life lessons learned by memorable, persevering characters in small towns and suburbs of Michigan and Georgia. The utterly convincing title story is narrated by Donnie, a 34-year-old construction worker from Tyler, Ga., a former hometown football hero and veteran womanizer who becomes hooked on Yolanda, an artist quite unlike his ``regular type.'' Gover dazzles as Yolanda, who ``wore color on her lips what never rubbed off... dusty-like and dark as old blood, and real different from them shiny fruit-tasting colors,'' introduces Donnie to issues of race, gender and love that he'd never considered before. With a keen ear for dialect and uncompromising candor, Gover writes with respectful affection of broken families, bereaved children, troubled lovers and stalwart individuals-especially independent women-as they choose, among the concrete details of daily life, between hope and despair. ``Chances with Johnson'' ends the collection as Elizabeth, whose ex-husband has disappeared with the older of their two sons, gambles one last time on loving another man, one who will reward her faith far beyond her expectations. While the strongest, most immediate stories are the first-person narratives, there are no weak entries in this impressive debut collection. (Apr.)