What You Don't Know about Men

What You Don't Know About Men tells the funny, heartbreaking stories of 20 sometimes shy, sometimes sexy, often sentimental men who march through life as punch-drunk fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, friends and lovers. Michael Burke's debut collection opens with the story of Matthew Connors, a suburban Chicago teen struggling to protect his sister and brother while their parents vacation in the Petrified Forest. The book closes with Brendan and Richard, two grooms in a seemingly uneventful gay wedding on a breezy Lake Michigan shore. In between, we meet: Father Daniel, a cranky Southside priest seeking forgiveness for a long-ago affair; Roy, an ex-Marine battling hallucinations while sprawled on the Belmont Harbor rocks; Patrick Kincaid, a roofer whose boyfriend rides the Red Line subway acting like a young Lauren Bacall; Eddie Doyle, a haunted widower wrestling with his shattered Catholicism while his daughter hides a secret; Bug O'Connor, who tries to pass off a brash chorus girl as Patsy Cline; and four buddies who shoot skeet, bet at the dog races and fail to understand the women around them. These provocative, page-turning stories are crisply written with an epic minimalism to depict the triumph, defeat, stalemate and surrender of everyday life.