cover image Danger Wall May Fall

Danger Wall May Fall

Lynn Luria-Sukenick. Zoland Books, $13.95 (166pp) ISBN 978-0-944072-76-9

Before her death in 1995 at the age of 57, Luria-Sukenick had published several books of poetry (Houdini, Houdini, etc.). The seven short stories in her bittersweet fiction debut are bitter but not biting; sweet without a hint of saccharine. In his introduction, Norman Rush aptly observes that Luria-Sukenick ""could be described as a specialist in aftermaths. Each account takes place after the fact-post-flood, post-marriage, post-woman's conference, post-affair, post-earthquake."" These events are related with such agile hindsight that it's easy to forget, for instance, that the water in ""After the Rains Only the Shadow Knows"" has receded. The ground in Santa Cruz has dried, yet the threat of flood, either emotional or literal, leaves the protagonist, a woman whose lover has decamped, gasping for air. Most of the women in this collection are sifting carefully through the debris of failed relationships with flaky men. ""Still Life with Bath"" is a heartbreaking account of a long-distance affair destined to fail. This anticipation of falling out of love is also a theme in ""What Is Lost, What Is Missing, What Is Gone,"" in which earthquakes and cancer shake the protagonist's world, and the collection's creative finale, ""Do You Know the Facts of Life? (Quiz),"" a series of deadpan questions whose answers flower into painfully beautiful images. The strongest voices in these tales belong to these women under stress, who are breaking up, getting divorced, finding solace in horoscopes. From the rubble of personal and natural disasters, they speak words of hope. (May) FYI: The author was the ex-wife of writer Ron Sukenick.