Ball: Stories

Ball: Stories

<div><I>Ball</I> is the thrilling and emotionally provocative debut collection of short fiction by the acclaimed author of the novels <I>Rockaway</I> and <I>A Child Out of Alcatraz</I> and the essay collection <I>Reeling through Life</I>.<BR><BR><I>Ball</I> explores the darker edges of love and sex and death, how they are intimately and often violently connected, with bright, vivid stories set mostly in contemporary Los Angeles. In “Cactus,” a young girl comes to fear the outside world following the freakish, accidental death of her adventure-seeking, naturalist boyfriend in the California desert; in “Wig,” a woman must help her best friend face life-threatening cancer while covering up an unseemly affair with her friend’s husband; in “Fish,” the narrator sits watch over a dying uncle, trying to pay for past sins while administering to his final needs, but distracted by the ravenous fish in the Koi pond near the hospital; and in the collection’s stunning title story, the bonds of friendship and pet ownership collide in the most startling and unexpected ways.<BR><BR>With a keen insight into the edges of human behavior and an assured literary hand, <I>Ball</I> is the new book by one of the West’s most provocative stylists.<BR></div>