Good Rockin' Tonight

Tony Award-winning playwright Hauptman ( Big River ) serves up diverse slices of Americana in his first collection of short stories, poignantly and seamlessly joining the painful with the comic. Although one or two pieces rely on almost stock images of American Gothicthe title story, for example, concerns a Texan named Bubba who aspires to be the world's best Elvis Presley impersonatora capable imagination and a gift for authentic detail inform the writing. In ``Hands Across America,'' a woman who is elated that the national news has singled out her small town for its support of the project to aid the hungry is baffled to see a bag lady, to her ``the sort of thing that could only happen in New York City.'' A three-year-old child of separated parents in ``Moon Walking'' explains to her adoring father the appeal of her new best friend: ``She doesn't have a daddy either.'' The spectacular final tale, ``Sierra Wave,'' uses a man's adventures in hang gliding as a theater for the complex processes of passion and betrayal, conquest and surrender. The wide range of subjects and settingsCalifornia in the '60s, Arizona in the '50s, contemporary New York and Texasand their full-bodied treatments will attract a broad audience. (October)