Amazon.comDaniel Stolar"s debut story collection, The Middle of the Night, is the work of a deft hand and a sharp mind. Set largely in St. Louis, M.O., Stolar tells the stories of people uncomfortable with who and where they are--outsiders lookingin at their own lives, trying to understand the circumstances beyond their control. Coping with the loss of a parent or spouse, and wondering what could have been are prevalent themes. There is not a bad story in the bunch, but a few stand out. "CrossingOver" follows a high-school kid as he works after school in a restaurant, befriends the black staff, and holds his own as they play basketball--high, and late at night--in the slums. When he joins a black fraternity at Boston University his freshman year, he submits to intense hazing and finds that despite his "crossing over," his whiteness may not be overcome. "Jack Landers is My Friend" describes a high-school reunion where Jack, a transfer student who longed for acceptance, meets up with Kara, a popular girl he befriended to the envy of the elitist boys. Jack notes: "The thing that had marked me was more subtle and even less forgivable: not only had I wanted to be accepted among them, I had assumed it was my God-given right. I still don"t know what I did to give it away." Although their lives have diverged, the reunion underscores that no matter what Jack ever wanted, Kara would never be more than his friend. The Middle of the Night is a sober, high-quality collection by a reflective, new talent. --Michael FerchBook Description
A commanding performance of profound emotional resonance, The Middle of the Night examines the crucial moments in people’s struggles to understand the strange paths their lives have taken: a seventy-year-old retired doctor tries to teach his sixteen-year-old son how to drive; a young lawyer at a high school reunion discovers that people don’t change in expected ways; a woman receives a phone call from the father she never knew; a white freshman pledges a black fraternity. Each of these rich, expansive stories is endowed with an insistent but plain-spoken intelligence, illuminating the drama and mystery at the heart of ordinary life.