In-Flight Entertainment

If there’s a flaw to be found in Simpson’s latest collection of stories (after In the Driver’s Seat, from 2007), it’s that they’re so clever they can distract readers from the characters as they admire the author’s technique. Simpson’s prose is crisp, her insights unsparing, and her passions transparent. The title story introduces a theme that runs throughout: humankind’s heedless destruction of our environment, especially from air travel. Related themes are intergenerational blame and tension between activists and the apathetic. Characters grapple with the awareness that they and those they love are falling toward death, which makes for quiet, sorrowful stories like “Scan” and “Charm for a Friend with a Lump”; and hurtling toward annihilation, as in the terrifying postapocalyptic “Diary of an Interesting Year.” There’s also caustic humor, as shown by “I’m Sorry but I’ll have to Let You Go,” told from the POV of a self-centered jerk breaking up with his girlfriend. And as the young couple attempting to accommodate their differences in “Geography Boy” shows, there’s also love and hope. Simpson nonchalantly scrutinizes the often strained relationships between parents, and veers into adultery in the delightful “Squirrel.” These 13 new stories showcase the work of one of the finest contemporary writers in the form. Agent: The Joy Harris Literary Agency. (Feb.)