Alligator dance

The richly textured stories in Janet Peery's debut collection nearly always depict people caught between two places - literal or figurative - or trying to understand the mysteries of a place in which they have found themselves and to apply that understanding to their lives. Whether the territory is cultural, sexual, or social, its bedrock is the heart. In "South Padre" an Oklahoma farmer and his wife take a trip to the Texas Gulf Coast where they encounter a test of. Their marriage and - each in a different way - the limits of their knowledge. Set in 1950s Milwaukee, "Alligator Dance" depicts…