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Buyer Beware |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: Brian McCombie |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 7/1/1992 |
| Size: 1,869 Words, 10,628 Characters |
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I LIKE IT BETTER NOW
James B. Hall
Fayetteville, Ark: University of Arkansas Press, 1992
214 pp., $22.95
The short stories in James B. Hall's collection I Like It Better Now present a culture where people are looking for what one character calls "a pure state." The problem they face is finding such a place among all the potential disappointments.
As a whole, the stories suggest that our society--in the broadest sense--can't give us what we need beyond the material. Certain characters do find contentment and emotional stability, but only after discovering a purpose within themselves.
Those who succeed are usually working-class types. Of course, people from the middle class are looking for happiness, too, but are hampered by their reliance on a culture neck-deep...
. . .
...wn sake.
But, on the whole, the stories in I Like It Better Now hold up a world we recognize as our own. The people keep pursuing happiness in its many forms, real and imagined. Some fail, others come maddeningly close. And even those lucky few who manage to catch and hold onto some contentment do so at a price, an emotional down payment they hope the future will prove was worthwhile. vbcrlf
(827 of 10,628 characters)
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