‘Inappropriate Behavior’: Farish doesn’t falter in debut collection of short stories

Appropriately enough, Murray Farish's debut short story collection, 'Inappropriate Behavior” (Milkweed Editions, 189 pages, $16), is filled with characters behaving inappropriately.

Some of those characters are historical figures-a presidential assassin, a would-be presidential assassin, and a shadowy figure implicated in an assassination conspiracy each figure in various stories-but many are everyday men and women who lose themselves in dark moments.

Many of the stories feature violent outbursts and acts, but in 'The Thing About Norfolk,” Farish offers up a couple whose sexual relationship takes an upsetting turn.

The story is among the most disquieting pieces in a book filled with unsettling moments.

The title story centers on a child who can't-or won't-conform to the expectations of his parents and teachers. George, the boy's father, is out of work and out of ideas for improving his son's behavior. The story is a poignant look at a family in crisis, but Farish expands his narrative to consider a more universal crisis, as well.

In a bravura passage rendered entirely in questions, some of which are powerful historical quotations, he links the personal to the societal and the present to the past.

As the section written in questions reveals, Farish isn't averse to explicit devices that call attention to the writer and his hand in shaping the narratives. In 'The Thing About Norfolk,” for example, he repeats the phrase 'she cried one night” several times in quick succession, and the simple refrain emphasizes the increasing frenzy of one of the characters.

Used injudiciously, such maneuvers might distract a reader and take him or her out of the story, but Farish never falters, drawing the reader deeper into the darkness.