David Walton's collection of eight stories, five of which are set in Pittsburgh, offers darkly humorous meditations on modern life. In "Skin and Bone" an unexpected, strange, and ultimately tragic encounter between a karate student and his instructor raises questions about guilt and responsibility. "The Sundeck" touches on sex, loneliness, and the difficulty for people to meaningfully connect. In the title story, a dinner party attended by a struggling academic begins with the toast "No more angst or ennui" only to end in hostility and disaster. Evening Out was the first book to win the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.

Reviews

Walton's obvious affection for his characters, his dry, understated humor and his fine ear for the significant subtexts that lie beneath the banalities and half-sentences that intelligent people usually utter to one another give his better stories a gentle power.

-- Russell Banks * New York Times Book Review *

Often whimsical but finally quite acute presentations of middle-class hopes and desperations.

-- Alan Cheuse

There are many pleasures in Evening Out, not the least of which is Walton's sharp ear for the facades in our consumer society.

-- Bloomsbury Review

Walton's voice is clearly his own-and it's one well worth listening to, since it does weird and wonderful things to what he calls 'the banality of the present age.'

-- James Frakes

The overall impression is one of originality and an attempt to explore life as it is, without manufactured drama or histrionics.

-- Booklist



Book Information
ISBN 9780820335155
Author David Walton
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint University of Georgia Press
Publisher University of Georgia Press
Weight(grams) 340g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 12mm