Swados is not an untalented writer — his voice flows easily and isn't marred by too many missteps — though he's more than a little mid-century in tone and tenor. His biggest problems come in the stories themselves, which run the gamut of narrative clichés (naive small-town boy moves to the city to pursue his dream, gets taken in by smooth operators, and ends up committing suicide to escape!), chicken soup-esque glurge ("A Handful of Ball-Points, a Heart Full of Love"), and well-meaning but heavy-handed social critiques.

The best story in the volume is certainly the title novella, which raises a question: it's unarguably best to start out a collection of stories with the one with the best opening lines, which unarguably belongs to "Nights...". But, at the same time, where is the proper place to put the best story? Swados' editor chose the start of the volume, which lead to a decline in interest as I continued. Without something as magically alive and real as the opening story, it eventually felt like a chore to push through the clichés and heavy-handedness to reach the end.

I'd gladly own a reprint of just the title story, and perhaps also the last two [My Coney Island Uncle, and Tree of Life], but the entire collection can't begin to live up to its high standards. ( )