Half-A-Dozen Dutch: Six Writers-In-Residence at American Universities

Providing a rare opportunity for American readers to acquaint themselves with contemporary Dutch literature, this slenderand wildly unevencollection of short stories evinces a distinctive cultural style and sensibility. Two of the stories are very good: in ``Arcadia,'' Graa Boomsma evokes powerfully the grim, living death of New York vagrants with a gut-wrenching immediacy enabled by an outsider's perspective; and in ``Sugar,'' Renate Dorrestein brilliantly enters the dazed mind of an old woman grieving for her female lover while being bullied by her unsympathetic niece and her loutish boyfriendher dreamlike trance culminates in a macabre, fairytale-like denouement. Thomas Rosenboom's ``The Wallpaper Store,'' with a haiku at its heart, neatly and elegantly challenges the reader's comprehension. The remaining stories lack such commanding and distinctive voices. The collection's provocative format includes the Dutch originals set in reverse order from the English to deter students of the language from peeking. (Dec.)