From Publishers WeeklyReprint of Guterson's 1989 debut, a collection of short stories set mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThese stories show Guterson to be a writer of high purpose, one who capably deals with the painful events that illuminate and alter his characters' lives. In "Piranhas," for example, teenaged Paul comes to realize the hatred he feels for his parents, partly because the piranhas in his aquarium seem to display a kind of love and acceptance for each other that he is denied by his self-absorbed mother and father. When he feeds the piranhas, they join together and move with a kind of honesty and devotion to their purpose that mocks his loneliness and confusion. Throughout, poetic sensibility is matched by a fearless desire to look at the truth in human relationships; most of the stories are told as reminiscences by narrators who are seeking some sort of understanding in their retelling. A fine collection. - Francis Poole, Kentucky Wesleyan Coll., Owensboro Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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