In this, his first collection of short stories, Larry Lynch demonstrates an exciting range of motion. Learning to Swim presents seven variations on the circumstances and obstacles of male adulthood, from single parenting and attempted first dates, to dead-end jobs and the family dog. These stories contain generous doses of understated tragedy and grit, with all the back hair and old band-aids of human experience. Heroes seek escape and release from the patterns and repeated failures in their lives. One rises above the mountain town where each day and every generation remains eerily the same, another discovers the truth about the end of the assembly line. These are stories about subversion and mastery of modern existence through the eyes of several less-than-successful men.

Lynch’s characters wrestle with potent imagery. Some look to art for answers, while others are governed by the continuity and layering of generations upon generations. Family dynamics can be as predictable as a litter of pigs, fate foretold in a flea market painting and romance charted like a map.

Lynch’s work is the product of an accomplished sense of curiosity and an experimental approach to form. The more conventional narrative of “Topography,” the hints of magic realism in “The Weight of a Blind Dog” and the self-conscious inward spiral of the title story each have a place in Lynch’s wide and engaging spectrum.

This book is a Smyth-sewn paperback with a jacket. The text was typeset by Andrew Steeves in Bembo types and printed on Rolland Zephyr Laid paper. The cover features an illustration by Montreal artist Pascale Constantin.