We Find Ourselves in Moontown

Showing himself to be a highly gifted writer in this first collection of short stories, Gummerman demonstrates a special understanding of the confused adolescent boys and young men who inhabit the suburbs and exurbs of the American Northwest. Dopers, misfits, the lovelorn--the characters all deal with some form of impending sexual or physical violence. In ``The Painter,'' a yuppie fired from his job for stealing a valuable painting, an impressionistic rendering of Jello-O salad, is visited by a streetwise teenager who talks her way into his house, his bed and his heart. ``Russell's Honor'' is a chilling tale of a bigamist who walks away from a minimal security prison and winds up at his unstable, vengeful sister's house. In the gothic ``A Minor Forest,'' a hippie dope dealer joins an illegal business venture to cut down Christmas trees, and the trip takes on a bizarre, surrealistic cast when the car he's riding in crashes and he sees the world in a new way. In almost every story, the characters' humorous, offhand responses to events mask a deep-seated sadness about the narrowing of life's possibilities (``Reality sucks,'' one character says) and the inevitability of disappointment, even despair. While the stories are technically perfect, however, they lack heart; it's almost as if Gummerman is afraid to embrace his characters, to engage in an emotional response. (Apr.)