A Matter of Days: Stories

Each of these nine resonant stories addresses a special day in the lives of four characters: Phyllis and David Stein, Phyllis's brother, Solon Pepper, and Aggie Crown, her college roommate. Lebowitz ( Leban's Will , The Man Who Wouldn't Say No ) portrays them from within, articulating their self-doubt, their longing to be clean-limbed and WASPily fair. Because luscious Aggie embodies their dream, Phyllis and David, in ``Days When Birds Come Back,'' ask her to bear David's child. David, made impotent by the memory of the handsome blond male who has just left Aggie's apartment, struggles to understand not only why Aggie prefers him but why Phyllis doesn't want a child so much as she wants his child. Solon, too, spending ``Fun and Games Days'' in an Adirondack cottage near Aggie's, is obsessed with her, but although she slips readily into his bed, he tortures himself into believing that she really wants the 17-year-old super-athlete down the road. Lebowitz's deftly realized characters are people caught in the raw, full of wild imaginings, at once sad and funny, perceptive and obtuse. (Nov.)