The Law of Averages: New and Selected Stories

There are writers who believe they need a giant canvas to represent history, while others know they can convey as much in an exquisitely detailed miniature. This collection of 29 stories, including several new ones and spanning 20 years of the author's career, exhibits Barthelme's (Bob the Gambler) power as a miniaturist, expertly finding drama and meaning in those fleeting, significant moments when the raised voice or the irreparable breach are avoided. The first story, ""Shopgirls,"" is written in the second person, initiating an unsettling intimacy between reader and narrator: ""You watch the pretty salesgirl slide a box of Halston soap onto a low shelf.... "" The narrator stalks three attractive young women working in a mall, who confront and eventually confound himDa situation that echoes throughout many of the pieces written in the '80s, in which male protagonists are often at the mercy of women in control. ""Instructor"" is typical: David is an academic interviewing at a small Alabama college for a temporary position as a biology instructor, and is escorted around town by Sonia, an accomplished, redhaired associate professor who's also a captivating, if not especially choosy, seductress. ""Reset"" begins: ""People at the office assumed Ann and I had been having an affair for the five years she'd been working for me."" From that wonderfully suggestive beginning, the story explores the jealousy, affection and inertia between the two co-workers. Many of the older tales (some were published in Esquire, GQ and the New Yorker) in this collection display Barthelme's burgeoning gift for polished prose, nuanced dialogue and short, zinger sentences, while the more recent ones tend toward a relaxation of those fine-tuned characteristics. All of these stories together, however, show off the range of this wickedly intelligent writer's unique craft. (Oct.)