cover image Out Far, in Deep

Out Far, in Deep

Alvin Handelman. New Rivers Press, $7.95 (110pp) ISBN 978-0-89823-113-7

The seven stories in this debut collection showcase Handelman's zesty prose and keen sense of humor. In the best works, the author invents offbeat narrators--a pimply farm boy accused of buggering a cow and a turkey in ``White Angels''; an ex-hippie trying to adjust to country living in ``Heartwood.'' And Handelman is also gifted at spinning extravagant scenarios: ``Provide, Provide'' follows the adventures of an inexperienced college professor who grows obsessive about a finicky feline for which he is house-sitting--a tale so amusing that its implausibility scarcely matters. Too often, though, the story lines are merely bizarre or melodramatic. ``After the Revolution'' becomes enmired in the pointless conversations of an unemployed former radical, his academic girlfriend and her yuppie cousin. ``Dear Abby,'' about a mute paraplegic who suspects his father of sexually abusing several women in the family, is gratuitously weird. (Feb.)