McCann, Richard. Mother of Sorrows.

McCANN, Richard. Mother of Sorrows. Random House, Vintage. 194p. c2005.1-4000-9621-9. $12.95. A

In this collection of ten short stories, McCann writes about a young man's boyhood in suburban Maryland with his older brother, his beautiful mother and, for a while, his father, who dies when he and his brother are very young. The stories are fiction, but because they are interwoven and begin when the boys are young until finally the narrator is alone and sick, they seem like a memoir.

Both of the brothers are gay and they go through their adolescence, young manhood and maturity from the decades of the '60s through the turn of the century, experiencing the torments the years bring: drugs, sexual promiscuity, AIDS, and the death of friends. One story, about the brother's death, is particularly graphic, but none of the stories are pleasant as the young narrator experiences a sanitized but confusing childhood filled with misdirected love and then, with his father's death, missing love. The mother is dominant in his life and both he and his brother struggle to be free. Full of angst, the stories are well written, but appropriate for only the most mature YAs. Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL

A--Recommend for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.