JVD's Collected Shorts: Volume One

This volume contains three short stories written by John von Dorf. The first and briefest goes over the calloused life of an elite finance student who abuses his socioeconomic position and can't get anything but shallow interactions as a result. The second story is a story about the boy's life of a rugby team, narrated by the scrum-half of the team with a strong Cockney accent. The prose is stunning in this piece, and the author considered it a monument to the ability for a culture to dominate a group's lives. The third story is a grim look at your average burnt-out, middle-aged fast-food worker. Steve has family problems and drug problems and work problems, and he grows to be comfortable in his uncomfortable world.