SOURCE: "Pounding Out the Dents," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 30, 1990, p. 12.

Below, McCarthy considers the moral progression of the stories in Barking Man, calling the collection "a splendid testament to Bell's superb narrative, stylistic gifts and passionate humanity."

Light, shadows and light. That is the moral progression that novelist Madison Smartt Bell develops in the 10 tales of Barking Man and Other Stories, his haunting, protean, compassionate second collection.

Through the five stories that comprise Part I, the characters, human and nonhuman—the narrator of the opening story, "Holding Together," is a scholarly white mouse—are beaten by life. They suffer, struggle, are defeated, make tragic mistakes, but somehow endure. At their core, they find courage and hope, sometimes even honor. Their inner dignity may get battered, but they pound most of the dents out.

The tone darkens when we enter Part II. Alf, the "Barking Man...