Manhood: Myth and Mystery

"Manhood: Myth and Mystery" is an original collection of short stories that feature characters struggling to come to terms with contemporary masculinity. Mississippi, Mexico, Chicago and Michigan are the settings for stories that undermine expectations about what it means to be a man. A burn comes to realize he is just like his alcoholic father; a young boy encounters his father recovering from a drunken incident; a patient struggles for self-awareness in the hospital's psychiatric ward; a man wrestles with alcoholism in order to visit his dying ex-lover; four fishermen compete secretly to catch the big prize. Each story challenges the traditional notions of masculinity---stoicism, rigidity and loneliness---and seeks to illuminate what it means to be a man in 21st century America.