Mozart, Westmoreland, and Me: Stories

If the title story in this collection of 12 seems extravagantly whimsical, excessive and surreal, others are subdued, quietly observed and rendered; all reveal an impressive talent. ""Mozart, Westmoreland and Me'' displays an imagination with a strong affinity for the bizarre and the grotesque. Mozart sits at the harpsichord composing as if his life depends on it (because it does) while General Westmoreland sits at the button which is his to push, and the narrator appears to vacillate between those violently opposed poles of human possibility. In contrast to this outrageous scenario, other tales concern a young girl, clearly an artist in the process of becoming, and stories of childhood in a small town in the years following WW II, when the ``commies'' were supposedly launching their conspiracy against ``Fortress America'' via fluoridation. Each of these short narratives is marked by lyricism, sensitivity, humor and balance. Kysal, who has previously published poetry and short stories, is a writer to watch. December 1