In Which Brief Stories Are Told: Stories

Sterling (Mutual Shores) gives a light touch to these tales of unremarkable people confronted by grotesque moments in the everyday. "One Version of the Story" pursues a sleazy car salesman knocked for a loop by a customer who walks in one day with a story of a hit-and-run accident he believes he was involved in while driving blind drunk. Similarly, in "What We Don't Know," a female gas station attendant contends with a sobbing male customer in the middle of the night, evoking memories of a romantic breakup, an abortion, and the car accident that has left her disfigured. Sterling sets up these curious yarns as if to delight in the reader's growing horror: a husband reluctantly attends a party given by his wife's boss in "Impaired" and is forced to listen to the boss's cavalier anecdote about hitting someone while driving drunk. Sterling proves to be adept at mining smalltown angst in these enigmatic and quirky stories, though they too often come to abrupt conclusions that tend to leave the reader just short of content. (Mar.)