Vertigo Park and Other Tall Tales

Tiny women lawyers, a torch singer in psychotherapy, terrorists, a girl who dates the moon, and members of a support group for lovers of unattainably remote people inhabit O'Donnell's wacky, absurdist universe. In ``The Corpse Had Freckles,'' amateur sleuth Bitty Borax and her legitimate cousin Anodyne investigate Aunt Addle's death from petting an infected cat. The title story features a Midwesterner turned Hollywood starlet who marries in succession the two worst U.S. presidents. ``Marred Bliss'' uses fractured puns and subliminal wordplay to mock the monotony of monogamy, as a marrying couple diversifies into a love quadrangle. Also noteworthy are an epistolary tale about a supposedly psychic newspaper columnist, the diary of a Sigourney Weaver fan, poems to Sominex and to a Dove Bar in the style of Emily Dickinson, a playlet in which Plato invades a modern urban couple's apartment, and laugh-aloud cartoons drawn by the author. Spiked with acid ironies, one-liners and outlandish events, O'Donnell's ( Elementary Education ) humorous tales, sheer zany fun, deftly deflate greed hype, the public's malleability, big egos and superficial emotions. (Feb.)