It Rhymes with Breath — Jabez L. Van Cleef

The late sixties and early seventies in America spawned all manner of idealistic dreams through which young people thought they could re-invent the notion of the modern. These five stories investigate the ways that avoidance of commitment, in both public and personal spheres, leads to critical choices for the reluctant protagonist Jack Lindsay. We see the sad force of a role model's suicide; the calculated betrayals of unsatisfied love; the hidden pathology behind a conspiracy; the hard-heartedness of raw personal preference; the vicious and circuitous powers of alcohol addiction. The voice that tells these stories is sparse, detached, cynical, and destined to learn little from failure.