Facing the Music: Stories

Larry Brown. Harper Perennial, $9 (167pp) ISBN 978-0-06-097255-4

Brown uses vernacular speech to good effect in these 10 raw, festering tales of the Deep South. His protagonists, nearly all men, seek escape in booze, sex, TV, religion and fantasy. ``There is an unvarying sameness to many of these unfulfilled lives, but Brown pierces the macho armor to discover the hurt, love and caring,'' praised PW. (Sept.)

Featured Fiction Reviews

Jane Yang

Yang debuts with a fascinating portrayal of ambition and cruelty in 19th-century China. Little Flower, a young woman with bound feet, is sold to the Fong family and forced to Continue reading »

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

Wolfgang-Smith (Glassworks) explores tensions in the private lives of three queer misfits turned business titans in her stunning latest. In 1899, 18-year-old Vivian Lesperance Continue reading »

Megan Howell

Howell debuts with a beautiful and striking collection about friendship, secrets, and unspeakable desires. “Lobes,” the outré opener, explores the narrator’s obsession with her Continue reading »

Mischa Berlinski

In the sharp-witted and weighty latest from Berlinski (Fieldwork), #MeToo allegations roil an off-off-Broadway Shakespeare company, prompting a 50-something actor to reevaluate Continue reading »