Trespassing and Other Stories

Shifts in relationships, particularly between women, are subtly revealed in this collection of 16 stories and one novella. In the title story, an intensifying feeling of menace threatens two women lovers at their isolated weekend cottage, but the violation they fear comes from another source. This and other stories in the first section, entitled ``Home,'' take place in familiar settings, while those grouped under the title ``Away'' occur at various locations abroad. Miner's preoccupation remains essentially similar in all of them, however, as she focuses on the nuances of behavior in which breakthroughs in relationships occur. The novella ``Transfer'' examines the unspoken affection between a woman and an older man, an old family friend. Living with a female lover in London, Ellen returns home to L.A. for her father's funeral, and reflects that she and Martin each may have ``loved the possibilities in ourselves which were provoked by the other.'' In several of the stories, a woman's viewpoint is caught with irony, even a painful hilarity. Miner writes in clear, accessible prose, and if her tales suffer from a sameness of tone, they have moments of resonating perception. (Sept.)