cover image The Theory of Light and Matter

The Theory of Light and Matter

Andrew Porter, . . Univ. of Georgia, $24.95 (178pp) ISBN 978-0-8203-3209-3

The narrators of Porter’s Flannery O’Connor Award–winning collection tend to be young and clear-eyed beyond their years as they give voice to the secrets—family, their own—that haunt them. In the opening story, “Hole,” the narrator ruminates on the loss of a childhood friend and the slippery nature of guilt, memory and truth. In “Storms,” a young man considers his relationship with a troubled sister, who abandoned her fiancé in Spain without a passport or money. The narrator of “River Dog” wonders if he should or could hate his brother for the things he did to other people, and for what they did to his brother. In the title story, a young woman ponders the nature of a May/December romance. If the events and secrets of these characters’ pasts have not overtaken their lives, then their reverberations still threaten to corrupt the years yet to come. Throughout, Porter shows how love and pain often come hand in hand. (Oct.)