rss-bridge 2026-03-01T06:06:07.442877121+00:00

PROVINCETOWN STORIES

These stories cover a wide array of experiences, locations, and characters, all in Provincetown, Massachusetts. One story about the Feast of Saint Bonaventure follows multiple, different characters throughout the evening, showing readers what the Feast means to each of them. Some characters have supernatural aspects; Luna, the “Queen of Land’s End,” is a trans woman who’s lived in Provincetown since the late 1800s who acts as kind of a guardian angel for locals, but also for the town itself. Without her, who would keep the tides in sync? Throughout, the various players are funny and vibrant, but sometimes they really do feel like fictional constructs than real people. They serve as representatives of a vibrant mix of communities, but the stories sometimes read more like parables than complex portraits. Provincetown is the real focus, and the tales are strongest when they talk directly about the locale; readers get to know its festivals, its summer routines, its struggles during the offseason, and they learn something about its past and how climate change encroaches on its future. López takes a great care to represent Provincetown in all its diversity; the majority of his attention is focused on cis gay men, but there are stories here about lesbians, trans and nonbinary people, and straight people, too; their cultural backgrounds are also varied, with special focus on the Latine community. In “Scenes From Commercial Street,” the narration discusses how white Provincetown still is: “Mexicans and Jamaicans haul garbage, mow lawns, and sand floors, but there is not a single person of color running an arts institution or major businesses.…Despite these realities, people of color are part of Ptown, and they find Commercial Street as intoxicating as everyone else.” This collection portrays that intoxication, and these realities, with passion and care.

---

[Image: Kirkus logo]

[Image: Profile Picture]

[Image: search]

[Image: search close]

ADMIN AREAMY BOOKSHELFMY DASHBOARDMY PROFILE

[Image: avatar]

[Image: SARABETH'S GARAGE]

[Image: BILLIE BUILDS A ROBOCORN]

[Image: THIS IS RUBY]

[Image: COUNT ON ME]

[Image: Close]

BOOK LIST
Picture Books for Mighty Girls in STEAM

[Image: Like Counts]

[Image: Print]

[Image: PROVINCETOWN STORIES]

shop now

[Image: drop down icon]

amazon

bookshelf

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

[Image: Our Verdict]

GET IT

[Image: Next book]

PROVINCETOWN STORIES

Russ López

‧
RELEASE DATE: today

A fun, sexy, and thought-provoking set of P-Town tales.

bookshelf

shop now

[Image: drop down icon]

amazon

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

[Image: Our Verdict]

GET IT

A collection of stories about a famed New England haven for LGBTQ+ people.

A fun, sexy, and thought-provoking set of P-Town tales.

[Image: Like Counts]

[Image: Print]

Pub Date: today

ISBN: 9798991370486

Page Count: 218

Publisher: Shawmut Peninsula Press

Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026

Review Program:
Kirkus Indie

Categories:

SHORT STORIES |

LGBTQ |

GENERAL FICTION

Share your opinion of this book

[Image: SARABETH'S GARAGE]

[Image: BILLIE BUILDS A ROBOCORN]

[Image: THIS IS RUBY]

[Image: COUNT ON ME]

[Image: Close]

BOOK LIST
Picture Books for Mighty Girls in STEAM

[Image: Like Counts]

[Image: Print]

[Image: THE THINGS THEY CARRIED]

shop now

[Image: drop down icon]

amazon
bookshop

bookshelf

[Image: Next book]

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Tim O’Brien

‧
RELEASE DATE: March 28, 1990

bookshelf

shop now

[Image: drop down icon]

amazon
bookshop

It's being called a novel, but it is more a hybrid: short-stories/essays/confessions about the Vietnam War—the subject that O'Brien reasonably comes back to with every book. Some of these stories/memoirs are very good in their starkness and factualness: the title piece, about what a foot soldier actually has on him (weights included) at any given time, lends a palpability that makes the emotional freight (fear, horror, guilt) correspond superbly. Maybe the most moving piece here is "On The Rainy River," about a draftee's ambivalence about going, and how he decided to go: "I would go to war—I would kill and maybe die—because I was embarrassed not to." But so much else is so structurally coy that real effects are muted and disadvantaged: O'Brien is writing a book more about earnestness than about war, and the peekaboos of this isn't really me but of course it truly is serve no true purpose. They make this an annoyingly arty book, hiding more than not behind Hemingwayesque time-signatures and puerile repetitions about war (and memory and everything else, for that matter) being hell and heaven both. A disappointment.

[Image: Like Counts]

[Image: Print]

Pub Date: March 28, 1990

ISBN: 0618706410

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories:

SHORT STORIES

Share your opinion of this book

More by Tim O’Brien

[Image: DAD'S MAYBE BOOK]

BOOK REVIEW

DAD'S MAYBE BOOK

Tim O’Brien

[Image: JULY, JULY]

BOOK REVIEW

JULY, JULY

Tim O’Brien

[Image: TOMCAT IN LOVE]

BOOK REVIEW

TOMCAT IN LOVE

Tim O’Brien

More About This Book

[Image: Portugal. The Man To Send Banned Books to Students]

SEEN & HEARD

Portugal. The Man To Send Banned Books to Students

[Image: Alaska School Board Reverses Book Ban, for Now]

IN THE NEWS

Alaska School Board Reverses Book Ban, for Now

[Image: Tim O’Brien Joins Ali Velshi for Banned Book Club]

SEEN & HEARD

Tim O’Brien Joins Ali Velshi for Banned Book Club

[Image: SARABETH'S GARAGE]

[Image: BILLIE BUILDS A ROBOCORN]

[Image: THIS IS RUBY]

[Image: COUNT ON ME]

[Image: Close]

BOOK LIST
Picture Books for Mighty Girls in STEAM

[Image: Like Counts]

[Image: Print]

[Image: THE AWKWARD BLACK MAN]

shop now

[Image: drop down icon]

amazon
bookshop

Barnes & Noble
BN.com

bookshelf

[Image: Next book]

THE AWKWARD BLACK MAN

Walter Mosley

‧
RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 2020

The range and virtuosity of these stories make this Mosley’s most adventurous and, maybe, best book.

bookshelf

shop now

[Image: drop down icon]

amazon
bookshop

Barnes & Noble
BN.com

A grandmaster of the hard-boiled crime genre shifts gears to spin bittersweet and, at times, bizarre tales about bruised, sensitive souls in love and trouble.

In one of the 17 stories that make up this collection, a supporting character says: “People are so afraid of dying that they don’t even live the little bit of life they have.” She casually drops this gnomic observation as a way of breaking down a lead character’s resistance to smoking a cigarette. But her aphorism could apply to almost all the eponymous awkward Black men examined with dry wit and deep empathy by the versatile and prolific Mosley, who takes one of his occasional departures from detective fiction to illuminate the many ways Black men confound society’s expectations and even perplex themselves. There is, for instance, Rufus Coombs, the mailroom messenger in “Pet Fly,” who connects more easily with household pests than he does with the women who work in his building. Or Albert Roundhouse, of “Almost Alyce,” who loses the love of his life and falls into a welter of alcohol, vagrancy, and, ultimately, enlightenment. Perhaps most alienated of all is Michael Trey in “Between Storms,” who locks himself in his New York City apartment after being traumatized by a major storm and finds himself taken by the outside world as a prophet—not of doom, but, maybe, peace? Not all these awkward types are hapless or benign: The short, shy surgeon in “Cut, Cut, Cut” turns out to be something like a mad scientist out of H.G. Wells while “Showdown on the Hudson” is a saga about an authentic Black cowboy from Texas who’s not exactly a perfect fit for New York City but is soon compelled to do the right thing, Western-style. The tough-minded and tenderly observant Mosley style remains constant throughout these stories even as they display varied approaches from the gothic to the surreal.

The range and virtuosity of these stories make this Mosley’s most adventurous and, maybe, best book.

[Image: Like Counts]

[Image: Print]

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-8021-4956-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION |

SHORT STORIES

Share your opinion of this book

More by Walter Mosley

[Image: GRAY DAWN]

BOOK REVIEW

GRAY DAWN

Walter Mosley

[Image: BEEN WRONG SO LONG IT FEELS LIKE RIGHT]

BOOK REVIEW

BEEN WRONG SO LONG IT FEELS LIKE RIGHT

Walter Mosley

[Image: FAREWELL, AMETHYSTINE]

BOOK REVIEW

FAREWELL, AMETHYSTINE

Walter Mosley

More About This Book

[Image: Best of 2020: Our Favorite Fiction]

PERSPECTIVES

Best of 2020: Our Favorite Fiction

[Image: kirkus nav logo]

Discover Books
FictionThriller & SuspenseMystery & DetectiveRomanceScience Fiction & FantasyNonfictionBiography & MemoirTeens & Young AdultChildren's

News & Features
BestsellersBook ListsProfilesPerspectivesAwardsSeen & HeardBook to ScreenKirkus TV videosIn the News

Kirkus Prize
Winners & FinalistsAbout the Kirkus PrizeKirkus Prize Judges

Magazine
Current IssueAll IssuesManage My SubscriptionSubscribe

Writers’ Center
Hire a Professional Book EditorGet Your Book ReviewedAdvertise Your BookLaunch a Pro Connect Author PageLearn About The Book Industry

More
Kirkus Diversity CollectionsKirkus Pro ConnectMy Account/Login

About Kirkus
HistoryOur TeamContestFAQPress CenterInfo For Publishers

- Contact us
- Terms & Conditions
- Copyright Infringement Policy
- Reprints, Permission &
Excerpting Policy

---

- Contact Us
- Terms & Conditions
- Copyright Infringement Policy
- Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

Popular in this Genre

[Image: Close Quickview]

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Trouble signing in?

Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

Welcome Back!

Trouble signing in?

Retrieve credentials.

Need Help?

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Choose One

Need Help?

This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. Learn more

---

[Original source](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/russ-lopez/provincetown-stories/)