Price of Tea in China -Awp

The characters in Bumas's debut short-story collection study one another like scientists-probing and peering, formulating hypotheses, searching for explanations. For the most part, they don't act hastily or thoughtlessly, opting instead to tread the more challenging paths of caring and patience. In ``The Attraction to Gravity,'' Seth is surprised to find himself developing a strong paternal attachment to the daughter of his soon-to-be-divorced girlfriend. When the little girl leaps into his arms in front of her visiting father, however, Seth gently hands the girl to her father. ``The Sign Shop'' tells of a sign painter, Rita, who reevaluates her reliance on New Age beliefs and strives to live instead with ``unanticipated plainness.'' And in ``Head in Fog on Water,'' an American student studying in China is forced to examine her bias toward the ``backwardness'' of Chinese society; her wish to return to America, she comes to realize, is partially wrapped up in a homesickness for conspicuous consumption-of Oreos, stereo gear, New York pizza, etc. Although Bumas's plots can be lackluster, his characters' gropings toward understanding are provocative, and his skill at presenting their thought processes in precise prose is matched by his ability to keep these searching men and women on the straight and narrow. (Dec.)