Filled with sharp humor, these seven stories explore African American experience. In the title story, which won an O. Henry Award, an insecure 12-year-old, son of an Air Force sergeant who's away in Vietnam, defeats the school bully. The young hero is black, his tormentor is white, and the story tackles institutionalized racism and the hollowness of the "Great Society" as experienced in Waco, Texas. "Roscoe in Hell" is a supernatural yet scathingly realistic fantasy about a crack addict looking back on his life from the vantage point of a free-for-all party in hell. "Soul Food" mirrors the soul of a homeless pickpocket/ex-male prostitute. The fable "Homunculus" on a lovesick poet contains wisdom about art as both mediator and cannibalizer of life. ISBN 0-316-56056-1:$18.95.

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