Rhymes with Useless

In 13 unforgettable stories, Terence Young examines the frailty, and bravery, of that most hapless of millennial institutions -- the modern family. Simultaneously warm and chilling, Young's characters shuffle between uncertainty and memory in scenarios too real to be fiction: a hippie's close encounter with an undiscovered Joni Mitchell; a single father's obsession with an impending bee invasion; a teacher testifying against colleagues accused of pedophilia; a German boy's vengeance against his wheelchair-bound father; a professor credited with encouraging a former student's sex change. This collection is both a litany of human foibles and its sensible antidote; regret and forgiveness, suppressed desires and unleashed lust, dislocation and homecoming.