Blood Line: Stories of Fathers and Sons

Novelist and essayist Quammen writes compelling fiction. In the three stories here, he renders the uneasy peace between willful fathers and their sons. ""Walking Out'' is a coming-of-age tale a la Hemingway about death on a hunting trip; ``Nathan's Rime,'' the most original of the three, is a brilliant depiction of an ill-fated ``serpentaryist''; and ``Uriah's Letter'' is an uncanny Faulkner imitation about paternity, revenge and incest. For better or for worse, Blood Lines is obsessed with hunting, guns, physical endurance and bad women. The prose, however, is beautiful, always precise, and what this collection lacks in innovation it makes up for in imagination. The author of The Soul of Viktor Tronko and Natural Acts, Quammen demonstrates his literary prowess again. (January)