In Hearing of the Ocean — Alan Fisher

Lloyd is back in touch with Barbara after her long silence and summer marriage to one of her professors. "You have no responsibility under the circumstances," she tells Lloyd, referring to her baby due late in the fall. "I wish you'd leave the whole thing alone." Other concerns also tug at Lloyd. A war is on and he expects to go. An ambitious pastime becomes the most compelling thing he does. And there are new girls, including one who knows how to liven up a funeral. Champ, chump, weirdo, square, Lloyd navigates with mixed success through the death and birth of love.