ASTRONAUTS: And Other Stories

Sweet, meaningful and imaginative, the nine stories in this debut collection by a winner of the Nelson Algren Prize for fiction offer lucid insight into the situation of characters whose lives are suddenly disrupted by misfortune. Set mainly in Sacramento, Calif., they express with quiet eloquence and subtle humor the power of perseverance. The most touching is "Make Them Laugh," in which a priest disgraced by a drunk-driving conviction is transferred from a cushy position with a rich congregation to a very poor parish. He shares his humiliation with his new parishioners, who are able to relate to his troubles. But his honesty is an embarrassment to his fellow priests, who, though outwardly compassionate, really want to keep their charges at arm's length. In the title story, two brothers at loose ends, one a manic depressive, the other recently divorced, set out on a hopeless odyssey to rediscover their youth and start life anew. In "Sudden Mysteries," a young man who has a car accident the day before his wedding is rescued by and sleeps with a woman whose marriage has just ended and has a vision of the frailty of human relationships. In "The Gift," a neighborhood tragedy helps a Mexican garage mechanic come to terms with the death of his son. "Wedding Dance" deals at several levels with family dynamics and the crushing pain of abandonment both by desertion and death. At their best, these effortlessly crafted tales are reminiscent in their vision, clarity and grace of the fiction of Ellen Gilchrist and Anne Tyler. Iribarne has a bright future as a storyteller. Agent, Phyllis Wender. (June)