Description: 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.
Brief description: DAVID WALTON is the author of Evening Out, one of the first collections to receive the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1983. He is also the author of Ride, a novel, and another collection of short stories, Waiting in Line. He lives in Pittsburgh and is retired from teaching literature and composition at the University of Pittsburgh.
Review Quotes: 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