Prayers of an Accidental Nature

The self-indulgent narrators of these dozen clever, passionate stories find their lives stalled by sexual possessiveness, mistrust and jealousy. Women afraid of getting older cling to younger lovers, and often the gap is made wider by cultural differences: young South American men leave insecure gringas once steamy romance turns into just so much hot water. In the witty and engaging ""I Am Telling You Lies,"" a married couple befriend an ordinary-looking student from Bolivia with a penchant for telling fibs. In ""An Interview with My Husband,"" a vulnerable wife questions her younger, Argentinean husband's fidelity. To get at the truth, she resorts to game playing while correcting his grammar. ""Pavlov's Smile"" details another cross-cultural triangle, with an American woman juggling two men from Argentina. The author veers from familiar terrain in the dark fable ""An Obscure Geography,"" wherein a victimized eighth-grade teacher gets back at her obnoxious young tormentor. The title story, a polished, witty satire in the style of Wharton or James, features a blue-blooded young man and his unconventional girlfriend as they meet his snobbish relatives, who inevitably thwart the young couple's plan to wed. Though the collection is uneven, with short pieces like ""Where All Things Converge"" and ""Our Perversions"" seeming more like erotic tone poems than fully realized fictions, Di Blasi's themes of sexual obsession, physical beauty and lost love ignite this notable effort to define the perils of intimacy. (Apr.)