The stories here are really varied. I think I was expecting a theme to emerge, but there really wasn't one except maybe that all the stories dealt with relationships of some sort. One particularly strange one is "Lincoln, Arison," which is about a relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass. A page or two into it, I was really tempted to skip it, but I was drawn in by the characterizations of both men. A couple of pieces really didn't work for me, like "The Soul Molecule" and "Skull." But I really enjoyed the rest, especially the title story and "Wired for Life." Almond does well with the female voice, which I appreciate.

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On the dreaded hellish flight back from Gatwick which routed me well out of my way through Texas, I almost didn't have a book to read. I'd brought one that I thought was going to be good, but it ended up being an exercise in trying to phonetically spell out the Newfoundland accent. I just can't stand that. Had to put it down. A guy I was traveling with handed me this other book, a collection of short stories, before we left and said to try it out. Never have I been more pleased. Otherwise, 11 hours on a plane would have crawled as slowly as a slug across razor-wire.

What do I know about Steve Almond? Practically nothing except that he teaches creative writing at Boston College. (It says so on the back of the book.) Also on the back of the book we are promised "...enough sex, wit, and brutal honesty to revive interest in the short story." Which is why, I suppose, my friend bought the book. His interest in literary fiction is nonexistent, but he'll buy anything that promises sex.

The writing was good. Good voice. Clever prose. You can tell this guy knows what he's doing. The stories themselves are hit or miss. Some of my favorites include Larsen's Novel (which is an introspective look at what writing a first novel is really like), both Wired for Life and Appropriate Sex (which deal with adult relationships, especially of the dysfunctional kind, in two very different but equally disastrous ways) and the title story (which you'll just have to read for yourself). Others didn't work quite so well for me. The Soul Molecule left me hanging with all that talk about the alien abductions. I Am As I Am could have been a great one, but the narrator seemed detached. The Idea of Michael Jackson's Dick came across a little pompous, preachy maybe, or full of forced, coerced, pop culture references. And Skull... talk about your demented sexual perversions that I just don't want to read about, brother, this takes the cake.

The hits were great stories, and even the misses were near misses and examples of good writing. I wrapped up the entire book (it's a small one) with time to watch a few in flight movies and work on my Sudoku. It passed the time, but more than that it *did* revive my interest in the short story.

Invisible Lizard's Unusual Oranges ( )

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