The Flight of Andy Burns: Stories

These 17 short stories nimbly and memorably revisit the subjects of Mattison's well-received debut fiction collection ( Great Wits ): kinships, here encompassing step-relatives and in-laws; romances, not necessarily successful or even healthy; and the ways people try to bridge the distances between them. Three works concern poetry projects in prisons, and another set focuses on college pals and their postgraduate friendships. Most take place in the Northeast, where the author herself lives, but none are bound by their settings. The title story, for example, involves no aircraft. Rather, a dinner guest is offered a ride home on a windy night by a particularly fragile couple he has just met; he finds himself recalling a shy, unusually serious fifth-grade classmate of years ago, who announced one day that a strong gust had actually picked him up and blown him part way to school. Mattison's finest writing is rooted in such episodes--apparently ordinary moments in which a character suddenly understands his existence more clearly, or reveals something crucial to another character, acknowledging home truths that are often unsettling but always illuminating. (Mar.)