Modern Physics and Other Tales: And Other Tales

This debut collection of 20 stories is marked by bitterness about the human condition and by poor writing. The author, an electrical engineer by trade, writes formulaic tales that mix squalor with meanness and indifference. His characters strangle dogs, steal and vandalize with a numb sort of shrugging awareness. Mostly, they drink too much and take a lot of drugs. Readers are granted Great Big Clues about how these people got to be this way, via allusions to assorted childhood deprivations and bad breaks. Matters are not helped by sentences like ``Joe, Matt and her had split the first twelve pack,'' and ``Dick can hear her in the bathroom, softly wretching.'' (Oct.)