Four Walls and a Passion

Four Walls and a Passion contains five of Luke Hartwell's best stories. In "Hooves are a Horse's Glue (But You Still Need a Nail for the Shoe)," a high school senior in small town Arkansas finds a new boy in class on the first day of school--a handsome exchange student from Turkey whose presence in town causes a stir. As the friendship develops, hearts and minds are stirred as well, especially when the young Turk attempts to teach his new American friend the traditional Turkish sport of oil wrestling. "Blue South" (formerly "Jimmy") relates the reunion of two friends separated for twenty years while one was in prison. The reunification is haunting in many ways, as the narrator discovers truths he never knew. "Nothing Strikes Back!" and "Space" involve a younger boy infatuated with an older boy. Both stories are tender and beautiful and portray adolescent longing and older boy responsibility adeptly and honestly. "Baby Self Hate" (a rewrite of "Toller") is an account of an unlikely friendship between two boys who meet in a group session, one attending over anger issues, the other there for help with his depression. The story itself is anything but depressing, with humor and sex dripping from the pages. As with his longer fiction, Hartwell here creates characters that stick with the reader long after the stories end. These well-written stories, with their compelling narrative voices, are must-reads for those who appreciate moving short fiction.