Veneer, 1: Stories

Veneer is a collection of nine short stories, eight of which have previously been published in various literary periodicals, and it is another winning effort by Steve Yarbrough. The bulk of his previously published work, two collections of short stories and the fantastic novel Oxygen Man, have been set in Mississippi where Yarbrough grew up. Some of the stories in this collection are set there as well, but he also branches his settings to California.What he shows us in his writing is that setting only matters in terms of background material. The human condition is the same in Mississippi as it is in California, and one suspects we'd find it the same if Mr. Yarbrough set his next collection in Cuba, Russia, or Canada. We are flawed individuals with needs, wants, and varying levels of the confidences necessary to acquire those needs and wants.As in his past work, decisions and actions make up a great deal of explanation for results. The title story should have more than one previously published listing, as there couldn't have been more than 10 stories this good whichever year it was originally published. It has the narrator and his friend, Emily, dining in a window seat of a café. He is married with two children, but away from his family as the Fourth of July is approaching as they are visiting his wife's relatives in Prague. There is some great foreshadowing early in the story when Emily asks him if he isn't worried about being seen together, won't people see them as having an affair. He says he only worries about reality, not appearances.The story has him telling her the story of his worst Fourth of July ever. It involves cooking steaks on a grill for his mom, dad and grandmother. It involves disappointments for each of them. It also gets into the relationship between his mother and father. The story comes alive between the narrator and Emily and he ends the story with a thought that this will be his daughter's worst Fourth of July as reality and appearances are about to converge.The story does not hit you over the head with the similarities between the various relationships. It also brings fourth small decisions throughout that the reader sees leading to the final results. As is typical in Yarbrough's fiction, the characters are well aware that they are making these decisions at the time they do so.While this is the best story of the collection, there are at least five others that are just barely a notch below. These could have been mentioned at the back of an anthology the year they were published as just misses to being added to the collections. None of the stories seems unfinished; each has been refined to the best possible version they could be. They are all written with the skill and subtlety of the title story.Yarbrough doesn't nearly have the readership he deserves. Do yourself a favor and pick up this 4.5 star effort.