Some people's collected stories aren't made to be read straight through or...finished. ( )

Barry Hannah’s writing can take an acrobatic leap off of whatever high-rise it is on, and land safely below. Like this from one of his best and most outrageous stories, Ride, Fly, Penetrate. Loiter:
“There is a poison in Tuscaloosa that draws souls toward
the low middle. Hardly anybody has honest work. Queers
full of backbiting and rumors set the tone. Nobody has ever
missed a meal. Everybody has about exactly enough courage
to jaywalk or cheat a wife or a friend with a quote from
Nietzsche on his lips.”
Take that, Tuscaloosa.

His characters rage and burn. A fired professor, like many of the characters, is “unable to swim rightly in his life and times.” Another: “I thought of my books, my children, and the fact that almost everybody sells used cars or dies early. I used to get so angry about this issue that I would drag policemen out of their cars.”

The stories in Long, Lost, Happy are arranged chronologically. Many of them are familiar. They are all memorable and searing. The latest are not familiar and don’t all seem to be coherent stories. They revolve church arson, ugly sin, and regret. They don’t hold together as well as the others but have a theme. This, from Rangoon Green, shines:
“He had hard eyes and that sort of dismissal of everybody in
front of him so as soon as they quit helping him they ceased
to exist. A major hate engine in him set on fast idle when it
wasn’t wholly engaged.” ( )

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