Last Good Man -Awp

The depressed industrial Boston suburb of Lawton Falls is the setting for this impressive fiction debut. In 11 linked short stories, Lyons portrays a bleak environment including corrupt politicians, two-bit mafiosi, abandoned textile mills and characters whose one true talent is survival. Among the well-drawn characters are a young Puerto Rican mother and laundress who appears in various stories and, we discover in ``Brothers,'' was raped as a teen; Jerry Gallagher, the bitter newspaper reporter and protagonist of the title story, who learns--40 years too late--that his one true love reciprocates his emotions; and the priest in ``The Miracle,'' who, when faced with the prospect of losing his parish, makes a deal with the neighborhood devil. The writing here is brisk and clean, if unexceptional, and the stories are finely detailed. (Oct.)