Fun with Problems

Starred review from September 7, 2009
Lonely and frustrated lives are explored in this new collection from the National Book Award–winning author of Dog Soldiers
. Stone's evocative prose treads through the murky waters of dead dreams and waning hopes, bringing out the pathetic and nasty side of people warped by addiction, sex, violence and time. Characters are almost blind to redemption, like the alcoholic professor-artist of “The Archer” who lashes out at a world that wants to celebrate him, or the Silicon Valley executive in “From the Lowlands” who has built a mansion, only to discover that no matter how much of the world you conquer, there's always something hunting you. “High Wire,” a story about a Hollywood screenwriter's on again/off again affair and friendship with a bipolar actress, condenses the years between “the death of Elvis Presley and the rise of Bill Clinton” into a wrenching treatise on love, addiction, success and failure. Stone doesn't just let his wounded characters whimper in the corner. He turns them loose on a world hard enough to knock them down but indifferent enough to not care about them once they're gone.