|
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review
May, 2000
Prosperous, morally addled young Americans wallow and flail in a glossy, unsettling consumer wonderland in
Klam's unnervingly dead-on debut collection of seven long stories. Capturing contemporary speech and thought
patterns as few writers can, Klam practically channels his protagonists, allowing them to inhabit him rather than the
other way around. In the hilarious title story, a testosterone-crazed advertising executive is forced to reconsider his
sexuality when he is unexpectedly attracted to another man. Klam's choppy, declarative sentences perfectly capture
the comedy of a dissolute serial monogamist raging against self-discovery and the poignant confusion that such
discovery brings. In "Linda's Daddy's Loaded," a wealthy father spoils his daughter and her husband so much that
the couple is nearly driven apart, longing for the days when they struggled together in relative poverty. Deftly
manipulating symbols and disjunctive prose, Klam explores the existential vacuum that threatens when the
American Dream is obediently followed. "The Royal Palms," an O. Henry Award-winning story, is an elegantly
composed tale in which the mutely explosive disappointments of a failed marriage are silhouetted against the
backdrop of a Caribbean paradise. Other psychologically penetrating entries include "Not This," about a man who
relishes the possibility of donating sperm to his pompous older brother's wife, and "Issues I Dealt With in
Therapy," about the reunion of two college friends at a wedding and the collision of past idealism with recent
imperatives of success. Throughout the collection, Klam demonstrates his mastery of the fine art of irony, exposing
the nerve endings of his complex, often tormented, sometimes funny, characters, while allowing the reader to make
his or her own judgments.
Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
| 
|
|
