Necessary Fictions: Selected Stories from the Georgia Review

These 33 short stories culled from the distinguished Georgia Review include a number of first or early publications by now well-known authors. Harry Crews's ""A Long Wail,'' a poignant tale of the last hours of an elderly farmer, was that writer's first appearance in print. ``My Real Estate'' was an early effort of Max Apple. Many of the short narratives take place in the backwaters of the South and concern marginal characters who lead lives of quiet terror and perpetual confusion. In ``Fra Lippi and Me'' by Harriette Simpson Arnow (The Dollmaker, a waitress learns a lesson from the life of an Italian artist. Barry Hannah's ``Ride, Fly, Penetrate, Loiter'' describes the journey of a drifter who finally finds peace. With a flavor reminiscent of a Mark Twain tall tale, one Kentucky land trader outwits another in ``From the Mountains of Pike'' by Jesse Stuart. Published mainly during the '70s and early '80s, nearly all these stories avoid the surrealism and elliptic diction fashionable then. Those are replaced by a realism that sometimes threatens to tip over into banality, but most of these stories are first rate. (November)