In the Garden of the North American Martyrs

Tobias Wolff's stories are populated with a variety of characters. In "A Boy's Story," a teenage boy tells morbid lies about his home life, while in "In the Garden," a timid professor lets loose with an outburst of opinion in spite of an unresponsive audience. An unpleasant hitchhiker is given a ride by a prudish loner in "Alice and the Doctor. " In "Old Friends," an elderly couple have a miserable time on their 25th wedding anniversary cruise as they endure the intrusive socializing of the ships social director.