Hot Fudge: Stories

In six stories that explode the darkness and emptiness of ordinary lives, newcomer Spilman creates characters whose hopes and losses seem as likely as those of strangers one glimpses in a bus station and then remembers forever after. ``The Old Man Tells His Story and Gets It Wrong'' is an artful and compelling tale in which a grandfather reminisces about his experiences in WW II and at the same time meets his fate. The disappointments of a mother and son are bitterly intermeshed in ``Someone Else.'' In ``Eagles'' a businessman riding the Victoria ferry from Seattle considers an impulsive liaison with a tough girl who offers to show him some nesting wild eagles. The title story, which won the 1983 Quarterly West Novella Prize, weaves the lust of young lovers through the final day of a senile old woman who broods about her past and craves forbidden fudge. It is in some ways the least compelling story here, but its lack of subtlety and nuance is not a failure. Spilman's exceptional ability to render the sweetness and comfort of familiar sorrows gives this collection a unique intensity and flavor. (Apr.)