Side Show: 1994 Annual Anthology of Contemporary Fiction

This uneven collection of short stories offers characters struggling with loss as they pursue dreams of dreams in barren landscapes and usually come up empty-handed. In Molly Giles's sentimental but enjoyable story, a bored young housewife turns her attention to Pierre, a dark, unfinished sort whose mere presence challenges her to leave it all behind. Laurell Swails's story offers Iris's resonant journal during a stay as caretaker of a chateau; almost comical records of her trying negotiation for the purchase of a dishwasher alternate with poetic entries in which she notes the blooming of the garden (``crocus buds expanding like purple balloons''), listens to music, dreams and reflects on time (``Patterns in the physical world evolve and repeat themselves; these manifestations we call time''). The two most enchanting tales come from Karin Muller; they thoughtfully and succinctly explore the cultural gap that separates the West from nonindustrial countries. In one, an American traveler meets a man in a far-off place who pulls out an old, folded newspaper photograph of an astronaut on the moon and asks questions that, for him, have no answers. Anderson, Jacobs and Stolz edited Side Show 1993. (Jan.)