What You Don't Know About Men
by
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From the story "Eulogy" -- Kent and I are driving along the flat, two-lane roads that reach across northern Illinois, the narrow, black-topped highways that stretch among the cornfields of Midwest, middle-class, middle-of-the-road America. Kent is my younger brother. He is seventeen years old. I am driving. Kent got high with friends last night and was left at a party on a farm in Hinckley. Maybe you know how to find Hinckley. I needed a map. “I think it’s near Rockford, maybe,” was all Kent could say when he finally telephoned this morning. Kent says nothing now and just sits close to the door, with the sun and wind on his face. He wears a black T-shirt, black pants and black boots. He also wears a tiny silver earring. Kent turns off the radio when I turn it on. “I almost forgot to tell you,” he says. “Tommy Burns is dead.” I manage to keep my eyes on the road.
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About the Book
What You Don’t Know About Men tells the funny, heartbreaking stories of 20 sometimes shy, sometimes sexy, often sentimental men who march through life as punch-drunk fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, friends and lovers.
Michael Burke’s debut collection opens with the story of Matthew Connors, a suburban Chicago teen struggling to protect his sister and brother while their parents vacation in the Petrified Forest.
The book closes with Brendan and Richard, two grooms in a seemingly uneventful gay wedding on a breezy Lake Michigan shore.
In between, we meet: Father Daniel, a cranky Southside priest seeking forgiveness for a long-ago affair; Roy, an ex-Marine battling hallucinations while sprawled on the Belmont Harbor rocks; Patrick Kincaid, a roofer whose boyfriend rides the Red Line subway acting like a young Lauren Bacall; Eddie Doyle, a haunted widower wrestling with his shattered Catholicism while his daughter hides a secret; Bug O’Connor, who tries to pass off a brash chorus girl as Patsy Cline; and four buddies who shoot skeet, bet at the dog races and fail to understand the women around them.
These provocative, page-turning stories are crisply written with an epic minimalism to depict the triumph, defeat, stalemate and surrender of everyday life.
About the Author
What You Don’t Know About Men is Michael Burke’s first book. He also is the author of the plays Wama-Wama Zing Bing and Let’s Spend Money. He lives in Chicago and his blog – www.ChicagoWriter.blogspot.com – features book reviews, social commentary and political opinion.
Visit www.ChicagoWriter.blogspot.com for a free Book Discussion Guide.