The Baby Can Sing and Other Stories

The 1998 Mary McCarthy Prize-winner for short fiction is a promising first collection of 13 stories that tread the fine line between sweet reflection and bittersweet sentimentality. The title story is one of the shorter pieces in the collection; its cool, palpable rhythm translates an infant's unintelligible but soulful cooing and sighing into exhilarating song. The cadence of this piece conveys Slater's potential to undergird her pretty prose with a solid, deeper beat. In ""The Bride's Lover,"" Slater juxtaposes the moony grief of a brooding man, invited to be the photographer at his ex-lover's wedding, with quick images of the less-than-perfect scene: the vicious cat preying on hummingbirds, the ravaged buffet table, a tipsy and bleary-eyed relative. Anyone who has tried to daydream out of a windowless office or a cramped cubicle will appreciate the suggestion, in ""Soft Money,"" of how to decorate one's working space to the hilt. Forget about mauve ergonomic chairs: why not luminescent blue walls, a wrought-iron four poster bed for comfy reading and a reflecting pool with goldfish? Other jovial but whimsical tales include one about a therapist who takes her own advice and winds up trading places with one of her patients. Imaginative, humorous and showing an impressive range of styles and insights, Slater only occasionally verges into mawkishness, and usually only when she's depicting the romantic regrets of her lonely characters. Innocent, yearning young girls; clumsy, hard-drinking buddies; and workaday women coping with solitude or love--all come to life with Slater's offbeat humor, subtle touches of irony and compassionate storytelling. (Nov.)