cover image The Prospect of Detachment

The Prospect of Detachment

Lindsley Cameron. St. Martin's Press, $14.95 (170pp) ISBN 978-0-312-02269-3

The 15 contemporary fables in this eclectic collection of modern traumas examine options exercised by ethical individuals under uncommon duress. Heroic people with feet of clay provide the source of their own perplexing predicaments to the reader's empathic bemusement. Cameron expresses gentle affection for her characters and their disappointed cultural expectations. Long oppressed by her firm's policy on office romances, Mrs. Wilberforce triumphs over the rules of her ad agency with public duplicity about her lover's sexual orientation, both thwarting and stimulating his career. The overlooked and undervalued characters articulate their situations with delicious deadpan wit, whether they occupy the glamourous fringe of the arts as do both Shelby (innocently cultivating Nick, who later corrupts her painting in ``Nudes Beyond Gender'') , and Georgia, unhappy recipient of the too-well endowed sculpture titled ``The Angel of Death''; others perform roles of lower profile, as does the blue-eyed Mujin , a Caucasian wife in a traditional Japanese family, who fearfully awaits the consequences of a portentous car crash. Of note is the wide range of personalities and lifestyles herein depicted; the protaganists speak well in many voices. (October)