The End Of The Straight And Narrow

Have you ever finished reading a story and then realized that as soon as possible you must tell it to someone else? I had that experience over and over again as I read the stories in David McGlynn's The End of the Straight and Narrow. The stories are exquisitely crafted on almost every level, but to discuss them in terms of point of view, plot, character development, or controlled use of language is to miss what sets them... Read Full Review

This absorbing collection of nine short stories has two common themes: Texas as a homeland and Christianity as a balm and a barb. Some of the characters in the first four stories grew up with Jesus and never leave Him, however they may struggle at times with the organized church. The narrator son in the Houston family of the second part's five stories (which comprise a novella) encounters Jesus late, after his blind and... Read Full Review

I read this in two days, because once I started, I had to ignore other things I had going on so I could finish. Just because I blew through the book, though, doesn't mean that the collection is light reading; I cried most of the way through it. McGlynn has created characters that I not only know, but both sorrow and cheer for. An amazing read. Buy this book. Seriously.

These are wonderful stories - they contain what a lot of American fiction doesn't these days: a moral spine. McGlynn's characters are good people trying to make their way through life without doing harm. They are flawed beings, just like the rest of us - and he draws them with such compassion, without judgment. His observations are very fine - he's looking where you wouldn't necessarily look - which gives the stories a... Read Full Review

Many of our better collections of short stories have more in common with poetry than they do with the novel. They do a dazzling dance with language, and leave the reader pierced with a single knife. For all the pleasure those kinds of story collections offer, they sometimes leave the reader unsatisfied on grounds of plot or characterization or long-term resonance. Few writers dare step into this breach and offer up stories... Read Full Review