REAR VIEW: Stories

Working-class characters struggling with their fates populate the monochromatic New England landscape of Duval's 12 stories. Often lapsed Catholics, they measure the bleakness of their existence against memories of better times. In "Impala," Roy Potts persuades his wife, Maysle, to drive to New Orleans so he can relive the "fun" of his youth. Over the grim course of the trip, both Roy and Maysle suffer different variations of midlife crises, yet keep their longings and losses to themselves. Other stories feature more ambitious storytelling. In the substantial but rather disjointed "Bakery," Gus feuds with a sadistic co-worker at his factory job baking bread; in "Pious Objects," a lonely priest offers solace to a man who hasn't taken confession in 20 years. A few of the stories are dark forays into the fantastic. In "Cellular," Frank Lecuyer, a retired postal worker who lives with his "mentally impaired" wife, Gladys, and his whippet, Tex (a spirited character in his own right), fights the construction of a cellular tower bordering his property; in "Fun with Mammals," the narrator helps transport a narwhal across the country on a flatbed truck. Duval is an inventive stylist, but his pacing is hit-or-miss, and the occasional epiphany he delivers fails to balance the leaden glumness of his protagonists. (July 28)