Gods and Angels

September 1, 2016

Notwithstanding its title, this new work from the multi-award-winning Park (e.g., The Poets' Wives was selected as Belfast's One City One Book read) features ordinary people in not exactly extraordinary circumstances, just tilted enough to be revelatory. A private eye who stresses how boring surveillance really is breaks into the home where he once lived with his now estranged wife and child; an educated young man crosses paths with some shady types at a leisure complex, trading his knowledge of the perfect wedding poem for their encouragement in learning to swim; and a 17-year-old dreads his annual Boxing Day visit with his mentally imbalanced mother, on which his cherished father insists. These stories reveal our constant longing amid life's imperfections, but Caravaggio himself says here, "There is no sense of achievement, no lasting satisfaction." VERDICT Thoughtful scenarios, polished prose; for all story collections.

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