Because We Are Here: 9stories and Novellas

Sophisticated and enigmatic, the short stories and novellas in this second short fiction collection (after The Coriolis Effect, 1985) from novelist Wachtel (The Gates, 1994) can at times be so subtle as to approach the opaque. Two bachelor brothers living together on a farm offer help to a passing female stranger and find their lives unexpectedly altered; a high-school senior trains for his final gymnastic meet and wonders about his future; a woman waits out her brother's bloody confrontation with the police and hopes for a better life for her son. Reflections on fate, consciousness and identity permeate each character's musings, although Wachtel's prose remains limpidly colloquial throughout. The strongest tales cohere around a clear central metaphor--as in the delightful ""St. Raphie,"" whose middle-aged protagonist, preoccupied with mind-body duality, is rendered invisible by a lightning bolt. At other times, Wachtel's avoidance of dramatic resolutions results in pieces that feel unfinished. Always, he leaves the essential mystery of life inviolate, offering hints and suggestions instead of answers. But even the lesser stories here exhibit a high level of craftsmanship and intelligence. (May) FYI: Wachtel's first novel, Joe the Engineer, won the 1983 PEN/Hemingway Citation.