"A master at work, a writer in absolute control of his material. . . . Sweet, sour, bitter, wistful, ruminative, comic, elegiac-The Lemon Table is . . . a joy to read." -"San Francisco Chronicle""Beautifully wrought elegies for lost youth, lost promises and lost loves [that] attest to Mr. Barnes's growing depth as a writer, his newly embraced ability to create stories that are as affecting as they are cunning, as emotionally resonant as they are prettily fashioned." -"New York Times""Filled with emotional resonance and hard-won wisdom, The Lemon Table is a virtuoso performance of remarkable clarity and insight." -"Los Angeles Times Book Review""Mr. Barnes handles his somber material with compassion, verve, shrewd intelligence and a sharp sense of irony. . . . Reading [these stories] is an experience more enlivening than depressing, [even as] mortality itself is ever present and truthfully confronted. -"The Wall Street Journal""Barnes is a top-flight precisionist, [with] the steady, ple