Love & Other Stories

LOVE & OTHER STORIESWILLIAM CASSRejected in love, the young narrator in the title story of William Cass's third short story collection, dismisses the idea that most of his life lies before him "unwritten, unscripted, full of as much promise as I choose to elicit." But most of the characters in Cass's engaging collection do have a poignant sense of time and the life-changing promise of small unscripted gestures. Set mainly along the Pacific Coast from California to Alaska, the range of characters and the challenges they face are wide: grandparents and teachers, concerned neighbors, waitresses, passengers on buses, a strip club bouncer helping a single mother, families coping with complex responses to addiction, men and women facing broken marriages or the lasting consequence of youthful harms. These thoughtful stories show us how unexpected connections and small gestures can free us to rewrite our lives in more promising ways.