This book takes up my mini review slot for the week of the 8-14.  For most of this past week, I’ve been as sick as the proverbial dog, laid out by a beast of a head cold.  Finally, I’ve been able to start reading again, so I dove into this book.

A collection of five short stories, each one deals with the life events of different men:  an ad exec, a man in rehab, a criminal, a writer, and a professor.  Each one talks about an important part in their life.  The advertising executive tells stories about friends and his meetings with them.  The man in rehab writes letters to all the people he loves.  The criminal talks about his time in prison when he was a young man.  The writer shares a story about the old friends that have begun dying around him.  The professor discusses a student of his who is obsessed with an Elvis conspiracy.

They’re a competent set of stories, that don’t blend together the way some short stories do.  It was an enjoyable read, not necessarily one I’ll go back to time and again, but I’m not sorry for the time I took reading it.