Suburban Metaphysics and other stories
	by Ronald J. Rindo

Ron Rindo is out to find wonder in the oddest places, and study it with a clear and steady eye. The metaphysics of suburbia is one of possibility rather than despair, and of transcendence rather than mediocrity and limitations.

Reviews
"Ronald Rindo writes with intelligence and sensitivity about suburban life and the emotional politics between generations. Like Cheever, he has a highly developed understanding of longing, of desires without any object. This is a clear and honest book, and it is well worth reading." —Charles Baxter, winner of the 1988 National Book Award

"In "Suburban Metaphysics," Ronald J. Rindo dissects middle-class angst with a gentle but firm hand. The short stories often turn on a single image, but Rindo's wit keeps the reader from feeling lectured, even when the moral often accompanies the finale." St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, March 11, 1990

These stories are about pain and loss told with sensitivity and attention to detail. In the best one, "Under the Carapace," a huge snapping turtle comes to inhabit the back yard of a suburban family undergoing domestic turmoil brought on by the husband-father's having run off with a supermarket check-out girl. The turtle remains there, immovable, imperturbable, an omen and a rebuke, until the situation resolves itself, presumably to the turtle's satisfaction." Star Tribune, Sunday, March 4, 1990

$11.95, Paper ISBN: 0-89823-114-0 Minnesota Voices Project: 40 Subject: Short Stories First Published: 1990 Trim Size: 6 x 9 Pages: 98

	Secrets Men Keep by Ron Rindo

Rindo presents his sad and eccentric characters in stories full of violence and infidelities with unmistakable compassion and even affection. As each new character tells his story, he is at once a person we've never met and the soul we've been afraid of all our lives. From the title story, a wild satire of the men's movement, to "The Glue Heron," in which we see a boy observing his father coping poorly with his wife's death, this collection is filled with sudden small surprises of plot and language.

Reviews
"Despite its title, the men in Mr. Rindo's book are not intentionally keeping secrets, nor are they at all unfeeling. Their emotions are simply beyond words."—New York Times Book Review

"Secrets Men Keep," by Ron Rindo, on the English faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, presents a variety of confidences gleaned from men of all ages, tales both long and short; some are hilarious, some achingly poignant. These fantasies, confessions, regrets and triumphs affirm in part what every woman suspects, that males often find growing up to be a difficult and time-consuming process." The Milwaukee Journal, February 26, 1995

$11.95, Paper ISBN: 0-89823-163-9 Minnesota Voices Project: 71 Subject: Short Stories First Published: 1995 Trim Size: 6 x 9 Pages: 120

E-mail Ron Rindo at: rindo@uwosh.edu

Questions and comments can be sent to christen@uwosh.edu
Date of last update: March 22, 2001