Amdahl presents hapless young men acting tough to conceal their dread of adulthood. In the title story, a star college hockey player unable to curb his boiling rage only half-jokingly identifies with the barbarians of old. In "The Volunteer," the well-employed yet disaffected narrator names John Updike and John Cheever the ur-bards of male misery, terrain Amdahl rips up like a tank bashes asphalt in brash and bloody yet astutely crafted stories of angst unlimited.