Encounters with Unexpected Animals: Stories

The stories in this colorful collection from Johnston (We Burn Daylight) track their characters’ coming of age in Texas. In “Paradeability,” the unnamed narrator and his young son, Asher, travel from their home in Corpus Christi to a Houston clown convention two years after the death of the boy’s mother. The narrator finds the convention bewildering, but Asher is excited to dress up as his hobo clown persona, Po’ Boy. “The Beginning of Wisdom” follows the teen son of a Corpus Christi pawn broker who learns the ways of the world while working at his father’s shop: “I sold stolen pistols to cops and widows and preachers. I listened to men lie about women and fishing, brawling and hunting.” In “Soldier of Fortune,” young Josh has a serious crush on the blithe Holly Hensley, who may be sleeping with a teacher. The gritty “Playing the Ghost” features a pool hustler named Jessie, who drifts around the Southwest from one motor court to the next and reflects on his Louisiana-born father’s bayou lore (“A loose hog was someone under a spell. Or a sign an heir had died and the family didn’t yet know”). Each entry portrays the complex lives of its characters with compassion, understanding, and incisive detail. These distinctive character-driven tales will linger in readers’ minds. (Feb.)