Swimming with Strangers: Stories

Lunstrum's uninspired second collection of short stories focuses on women unhappy in their lives and relationships. In “Islands,” an older couple are prompted to reexamine their relationship after befriending a younger couple on a small Pacific Northwest island, while in “Familial Kindness,” the conflict is between a woman and her long absent brother-in-law who returns to town for a funeral. Lunstrum returns often to the theme of love slowly burning out as years pass, as in “Carmel,” where the husband reminisces about his wife's once smooth thighs and how she used to revel in parties rather than avoid them. In “The Drowning,” a teenage girl is pursued by a persistent lifeguard at the summer camp where they work and her wariness to commit reflects her parents' own strained relationship. While the writing is generally competent, Lunstrum's plot lines veer into the unlikely, and the dialogue is too often unnatural. (Nov.)