An elegant, wry, wise, witty collection that deserves a place among the best work being produced today. Young is a writer who knows his craft and deserves the attention of a wide audience.
--Patricia Averbach, author of Resurrecting Rain
What sets these exquisitely crafted stories apart is John Young's keen sense of place and his ability to make you feel you are there. Not just physical places, but states of mind too.
-Don Tassone, author of Francesca
Ordinary people face complex moral, romantic or financial decisions: a journalist's mother doesn't see his talent; a wife decides to have a baby with her terminally-ill husband. Reading these tales, memories flood: of mistakes made; crushes that almost became romances; knotty family dynamics.
--Cynthia Smith, Journalist, Wyoming News
As one story progresses to the next, Young's deceptively simple voice evolves, and the stories deepen shockingly - as if fate has caught us, and Young himself, in the best hopes of literature.
--Frederick Dillen, author of the novels, Hero, Fool, and Beauty
I said Let me read a few minutes of these stories before I start dinner. At midnight I was still crying, laughing, and fond of Young's ability to take me with him. Unique turns of phrase add as much impact as his uncanny understanding of who we are.
--Connie Shakalis. Columnist, The Bloomington Herald-Times
His rural Midwest focuses on fathers expecting their dreams to be reincarnated through sons; mothers who push those sons; "popular" girls; ... and boys whose personalities vary widely. It's a masculine culture, old school style, which Young neither idealizes nor romanticizes.
--Dan Brown, editor of Aeqai, April 24, 2021.