White Man's Problems

In nine dazzling stories bouncing between nouveau riche Los Angeles and the working-class East Coast, Kevin Morris explores the vicissitudes of modern life. His characters self-consciously grapple with both technology and postmodern cynicism, struggling to sort out the problems that attend marriage, family, success, failure, growing up, and getting older but not necessarily wiser. Whether looking for creative ways to let off steam after a day in court or enduring chaperone duties on a school field trip to the nation’s capital, these average men are simultaneously nothing special and the heroes of their own ordinary lives. The themes of these perceptive, wry and sometimes humorous tales pose philosophical questions about conformity and class, duplicity and decency, and the actions and meaning of an average guy’s life. Morris’s confident debut strikes the perfect balance between comedy and catastrophe — and introduces a virtuosic new voice in American fiction.