Emperor of the Air - Hardcover

Ethan Canin grew up in California, where many of his stories are set. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, Ploughshares, Chicago, and other magazines, and it has been selected for a number of anthologies, including Best American Short Stories 1985 and 1986. In addition to the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, he has won a James Michener Award, and Iowa Teaching/Writing Fellowship, and the Henfield/Transatlantic Review Award. He is twenty-eight years old and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attends medical school. Emperor of the Air is his first book.

Male self-recognition, differentiated by age and experience, is the unifying theme in these four stories from Ethan Canin's first collection. The author's narration is a bit dull and slow, with no real use of vocal characterizations. It sounds as if he is so entranced with his words that he feels no embellishment is needed. He is wrong. Canin's stories, while somewhat compelling, may not keep listeners interested enough to ignore his voice. M.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine