Family Men: Stories

Several of the 11 stories in Yarbrough's first book are delights--taut, masterfully executed efforts tracing the growth of character. Even those that are slightly off the mark are revealing in their depictions of quirky Southern poor whites with precious few aspirations: ``After awhile you found yourself shopping Wal-Mart for excitement, and you began to hate Christmas.'' The title, however, is something of a misnomer--the stories are less about family men than about men and women trying to cope with severely limited choices: an elderly woman finds her life inevitably slipping; men come to terms with their alcoholic and philandering fathers; an athlete, romantically involved with a former teacher, flunks out, yet eventually becomes a scholar obsessed with literature, far more mature than his collegiate peers. The bleakness of Yarbrough's landscape is thus richly tempered by the promise of a modest deliverance. (Oct.)