North of Ordinary

Gardiner’s first book in 20 years (after The Magellan House) is a well-crafted collection of wistful character studies, most of which explore the history and natural world of Northern Virginia. In “Tree Men,” a student goes on leave from college to work for a tree service, hoping the manual labor and exposure to the outdoors will help with his depression and anxiety. It does for a time, until he realizes he’ll eventually have to return to “that place where thinking was considered work.” The narrator of “Freak Corner,” a standout, reflects on his Arlington childhood in the 1950s, when his deaf sister was bullied by the Knox brothers, who lived nearby. The Knoxes also pick on a trans woman whose gender change is politely accepted by the narrator’s parents but brings “notoriety” to the neighborhood. Lester, the retired and feeble main character of “Survival,” walks to a graveyard formerly used for the town’s Black people, planning to visit the grave of a man he once worked with. When Lester, who is white, encounters an elderly Black man repairing a vandalized wall, their conversation yields a subtle examination of the region’s racial conflicts, past and present. There’s not much plot to speak of, but Gardiner holds the reader’s attention with his incisive prose. These reflective tales were worth the wait. (Jan.)