“This author’s first collection of short stories offers a nostalgic trip through American culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Set in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area, the stories deal specifically with the concerns of the blue-collar American male. ‘Short Stories’ takes place during a high school reunion where a friend who served in Vietnam confronts one who didn’t. ‘Grade Nine’ concerns unemployment and working on an assembly line. In ‘Nazi on the Phone,’ set at Kent State, two students try to track down a hate organization. All the stories are colored by the political attitudes of the Vietnam War. Draft dodging, the nuclear threat, and Martin Luther King Jr. are among the major issues evoked, but the stories also vividly depict the popular culture of an era—its music, college exams, and dating scene.” —Library Journal