I've never been a fan of short stories til they started sneaking up on me in the last few years. I have always loved Joseph Epstein's books of short stories, but I usually felt cheated when they ended. I wanted more and that was not the intent of Joseph Epstein to give me more. No, he gave me what he could in brilliant small packages. Now Stuart Nadler, in his wonderful book of short stories, "The Book of Life", is also cheating me! But I'll take them and appreciate them for what they are.Nadler, like Joseph Epstein, writes generally about Jewish men. Many of Nadler's are from a younger generation than Epstein, but he has found the right words to build pictures of these men who are on the threshold of life. Just beginning jobs and love lives, these young men do and say things that will sometimes come back to haunt them later, but for now, they're trying to live in the here-and-now. An exception to this is the middle age man in the story, "The Moon Landing", who returns from Los Angeles to Boston after the death of his parents. He hasn't been in Boston in years - having exiled himself to LA - and now finds it difficult to clear out his parents' house with his younger brother, who had stayed in Boston and built a life there. What he remembers of his parents and brother is sadly reflected in the detritus of his parents' belongings. It's a spare and sad story, but compellingly interesting at the same time. Other stories by Nadler are about generation gaps between fathers and sons. All are brilliant.I can't recommend Nadler's "The Book of Life" strongly enough. The reader doesn't have to be Jewish to appreciate the stories; men are the same the world over. As are their loves and thoughts and dreams.