Believers by Charles Baxter

Philip Levine recommends
Believers, stories and a novella by Charles Baxter: "This is a superb collection; the stories are unusually daring and imaginative-'Time Exposure' and 'The Lures for Love' are two not to be forgotten. The novella 'Believers' demonstrates an extraordinary ability to deal with and invoke a past era and to show how sex, power, money, and class determine the lives of ordinary as well as exceptional Americans. 'Believers' is so subtle, potent, and authoritative, it recalls that other Midwestern master of fiction, F. Scott Fitzgerald. To my way of reading it is the best of Baxter, as well as the best novella I've read in years." (Pantheon)