Collected Stories, 1948-1986

The characters in Wright Morris's stories move through daily life waiting for something, looking into their pasts or to small instances of life around them for illumination. Morris, a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction, writes masterfully, in prose whose clarity and accessibility render it deeply satisfying. The most moving pieces are those in which his characters try to make sense of loss. In ""Things that Matter,'' Carolyn catalogues her differences with Enid, who has left her, and ``Real Losses, Imaginary Gains,'' deals with the death of a beloved aunt. Wright's characters often find knowledge, if not solace, in animalsa cat that arrives unexpectedly, a dog that diesand though the people seem at times overwhelmingly alone, the stories are not bleak. Spanning close to 40 years of Morris's work and ranging in settings throughout the U.S. and in many cities abroad, this collection deals with wartime experiences, race relations in the South and displacement, both cultural and temporal. Through his eyes we glimpse the mysteries of life and the small epiphanies that render them a little more comprehensible. (October)