The proprietor of a bowling alley whose artist daughter paints only phalluses. A ninth-grade girl who marries in haste only to be faced with impotence. A libidinous poet who learns the meaning of harassment. A gifted basketball player whose fraternal twin sister is awarded $200,002 for being pregnant. The life and loves of a professional lawn mower. The life and death of a drive-in movie theater.All of these elements make up the multicolored canvas of Mark Winegardner's debut short-story collection. Winegardner, whose rich and epic novel, Crooked River Burning, gave the much maligned city of Cleveland, Ohio, a fresh and vibrant aspect, returns to the Midwest that he knows so intimately and casts a piercingly compassionate eye on its denizens who lead lives of not necessarily quiet desperation. The result is a kaleidoscopic picture of a people who are arrogant and humble, faithful and disloyal, driven and floundering-a people who are, finally, America itself. Read Less