McCorkle a complicated but gifted author

It's always a pleasure to open a new book from Jill McCorkle, whether it is a novel, or in this case, a collection of short stories. No contemporary writer has a sharper ear for the way Southerners talk nor a keener eye for the way we look and act, and her work is always warmed by an unfailing sense of the humor in life.

But there have always been dark sides to her vision, and it seems particularly evident in most of these. Debby, in the title story, has lost her chances in life, devoting herself to the care of her ailing mother. She was in love once, but the boy was black, and she didn't quite have the nerve to give herself to him. All she has left is the hope that her mother will die.

Rose, in "Surrender," has lost her son and is left with his white trash wife and a granddaughter who keeps drawing pictures of her naked. While she feels angry and guilty, there is at least the feeling that things might work out.

The young narrator of "Midnight Clear" is newly divorced, trying to help her young sons adjust to their new life, and coping with a failure in her septic system. To make things worse, she has invited her former husband and his new family over for Christmas Eve. She fears disaster, but by the end of the evening knows she has finally made the right choice.

"Another Dimension" begins as Ann, also recently divorced, goes back to her childhood home for the first time since her father's death. She is anxious about seeing her irresponsible brother Jimmy, who had terrorized her as a child and forced her to drive away the only woman her father had loved since their mother's death.

"PS" is a bitter but funny letter to the counselor who failed to save the letter writer's marriage. "Driving to the Moon" describes a woman's trip to see her first lover, another irresponsible man but one she has never gotten out of her system.

The married mother of "Magic Words" is planning to meet a new lover in a motel, but her children's needs get in the way.

"Me and Big Foot" starts out sounding like a love story but ends as a young girl gradually loses her hold on reality.

The best story in the collection is one I've read before in several anthologies, and enjoyed even more this time.

"Intervention" is about two married children trying to help an alcoholic father, but his reason for drinking is far deeper and complex than they could imagine. In the end, this is the only true love story in the book.

McCorkle is not an easy writer to categorize. She can be flip and irreverent, yet beneath that is someone who cares deeply about people and understands why we do the seemingly irrational things we all do. Why we cling to failed relationships, take risks to go after men (or women) who can only bring us pain.