Cheaters and Other Stories

Taking on a wide range of characters and circumstances, Albarelli's debut collection of nine short stories offers some compelling and original tales alongside others that are predictable and ordinary. The two stories that open the volume are among the best: the first, ""Winterlude,"" tells of a drug-abusing journalist who takes up with a manipulative college student seeking to enlist him in her plans for revenge against her mother. The second, ""Honeymoon,"" is about a young Irishman whose involvement with terrorism threatens to undermine his approaching marriage. Again showcasing Albarelli's range is ""The Orthodox Brother,"" in which a young Jewish woman must come to terms with her identity while staying with her strictly observant sibling and his family. Other stories, however, are pro-forma excursions into the territory of adultery and middle-class dissatisfaction. A professor has a crush on a student in ""Infatuated."" ""O Sole Mio"" is a thin tale about family tensions; ""Grace,"" about a man whose wife is sexually assaulted while he is with another woman, subjects its dark topic to an awkward sentimentality. These lesser stories are schematic; the characters' predicaments unfold without reference to a larger social world. Albarelli is at his best when he fleshes out a context in which his themes of honesty and deception acquire resonance and meaning. (Aug.)