McGlynn’s anonymous speaker inhabits a paracosmic fantasyland where date-raping praying mantises become gay flight attendants, Beowulf rides a chopper through Canada and skull-licking is common practice among the academic elite. Our protagonist finds herself adrift amidst a panoply of Steves who both mirror and deflect the title’s anti-hero. Despite bifurcations of class, fame and intelligence, each Steve can be distilled to an essence we instinctively recognize as the Steveness inherent in all of us. Steve’s world, while endlessly re-forming, exhibits an authority that makes these stories both addictively escapist and disturbingly believable. Alabama Steve is available exclusively through the Destructible Heart Store (destructibleheart.com) or the author.