Shadows of Men

Here are long shadows. Cast as inherited notions of what it means to be a man, Kevin Grauke’s Shadows of Men is a defining meditation on maleness, masculinity, and manhood. The fathers, sons, husbands, and lovers of this ambitious first collection occupy a suburban terrain where insecurity, uncertainty, and inadequacy all project a disquieting shade. Their floundering may demarcate the thirteen stories’ humor and poignancy, but a dignified, near-elegiac portrayal of the modern man resonates. The shadows’ reach is long, and these characters may stumble and lose their way, but Grauke’s empathetic clarity sweeps the unsettling land.