Mint Tea and Other Stories

The characters in Craig's ( Quadrille for Tigers ) bland stories , set in Jamaica or focusing on Jamaicans living abroad , are uniformly seen from a distance; we rarely penetrate their inner lives, and little happens to them. In a promising but ultimately disappointing story, 40-year-old Marthy believes her lecherous neighbor has grown roots and can no longer rise from the base of a tree where he was resting, but the tale feels unresolved as she simply watches him disappear into the ground, not knowing what to do. In another tale, a young man returns to a small town to reclaim his grandfather's land and courts an older woman who has been abandoned by her husband; they become involved in an affair despite the gossip in the community. Another story has a novelist from New York City take up with an airport worker, who is adopted by his high-class friends for her beauty; but the writer, condescending to the young woman, worries that his sophisticated crowd will prove ``dangerous'' to her . Lush settings are sometimes well described and evocative, but they rarely host any action. (Nov.)