From a new voice in American fiction come tales of men whose language is grief, whose off-center lives expose the difficulty of being whole in a world they cannot understand.Set in the spare, unforgiving landscapes of rural New England and rural Texas, Timothy Westmoreland's stories explore the reality of life among the ill and the dying, the disadvantaged and those unfit for life except in the margins. They examine the individual moment, those times when people create fiction in their lives just to survive, soothing the ache that permeates their being. Dark and funny, these stories tell wrenching truths about being men and being whole. Reminiscent of the work of Russell Banks, they announce a major new writer of immense talent.
Afflicted and flawed, the male protagonists--blue collar but well read--of Timothy A. Westmoreland's impressive debut collection,
Good as Any, all suffer quietly their own degenerative or chronic ailments, which parallel or are seemingly a manifestation of their emotional shortcomings and loneliness. Hope, here, is not an option. Westmoreland's prose is sparse and exacting, with promising insights. In these stories, a man "walked into novels as if they were rooms in his own home," and "[a] fish is like a good idea. You have to know what to do with it or it's wasted." With each story involving illness and dying, Westmoreland notes that "[e]veryone learns in time, when it comes to illness, that compromise is really only a process of letting go."
The most powerful work is "They Have Numbered All My Bones," in which a man, hovering in the gray area near consciousness following a car accident, recalls his one, true love long ago; nearly as impressive is the title story, which depicts a tired relationship ended when a man adopts a terminally ill dog and gives himself over to his pet at his girlfriend's expense. Despite the fact that most stories end on a rather unresolved note, there is a compassion and earnestness throughout the book that, while it may be somewhat depressing for some, forces introspection over difficult terrain. Good as Any is an important new collection. --Michael Ferch
