North Arrow

by Dennis Barone

These seventeen stories ranging in length from a single paragraph to fifty pages explore issues of voice and silence, identity and its erasure in a style that is often poetic, frequently dark and somber, and occasionally humorous. From many different narrative perspectives, the author offers a jeremiad of sorts, urging readers to examine their own virtues and vices before venerating or condemning others. The title story, for example, describes the difficulties faced by a young woman veterinarian in the Netherlands. Not all of her problems originate with the men she meets who are skeptical about a woman’s ability to work with large farm animals. In this bildungsroman of thematic oppositions – youth / age, elite / working class / north / south, city / country, male / female – the protagonist, Jacqueline, must come to know herself before she can exude the confidence she needs in her work and her life. The author doesn’t let himself off the hook, either. In an autobiographical narrative, “Northfield,” he discusses the inability to remember and the partial failures that result from this shortcoming. Shorter pieces in the book in various ways illustrate a number of human foibles and follies that spring from the limitations of knowledge and recall.

140 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2008