cover image Lent, the Slow Fast

Lent, the Slow Fast

Starkey Flythe. University of Iowa Press, $17.95 (152pp) ISBN 978-0-87745-274-4

The 11 stories in this recipient of the 1989 Iowa Short Fiction Award, well-crafted in plot and vivid in language, form a funny and sad whole that powerfully exceeds the sum of its parts. Characters just embarking on adulthood--as in ``For a Good Time, Call Matthew'' and ``Learning Italian'' and ``The Glass of Milk''--or confronting death and separation, as in ``Walking, Walking,'' are universally motivated by love in a variety of forms, including healthy self-love. Changing relationships, like those in ``Lent,'' ``Every Known Diversion'' and ``The Coalition,'' force characters to reconsider the emotional and sexual discoveries of their youth while foreshadowing a later acceptance of disillusionment and sense of fulfillment. Convincing, likable characters and archetypal experiences enrich Flythe's first--but, one hopes, not his last--book. (May)