THE LAST GOOD MAN

“Like Sherwood Anderson’s classic `Winesburg, Ohio,’ Lyons’s debut collection of 11 stories — winner of the Associated Writing Programs 1992 Award in Short Fiction – lifts the rock off a seemingly sleepy town to cast light on the quietly desperate secret lives of its inhabitants. Lawton Falls, Massachusetts is a dying mill city whose ethnically mixed population includes politicians, priests, blue-collar workers, mixed-up teens, and the newspaperman of the title tale who, at the end of an undistinguished career, wrestles with the morality of making `a great deal of money in an illicit fashion.’ Lyons, a remarkably gifted writer, renders these slices of life with compassion and a keen eye for telling detail. Highly recommended.” – Library Journal