The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories

Pink’s light touch turns the ordinary into the surreal in his humorously understated collection (after The Garbage Times/White Ibis). In stories mainly set at workplaces governed by mundane minutiae, Pink highlights the absurdity in everyday events. Each sentence, whether a single word or a lengthy paragraph, is offset with white space before and after. The effect is to isolate and elevate individual moments, like panels in a graphic novel. (Pink is also a painter.) The abrasive title character in “The Dishwasher” operates in a perpetual state of hilarious rage (“It’s his job to stare off, frowning, thinking about how much he hates you”). In “The Machine Operator,” a temp worker performs a gritty, noisy, backbreaking, and ultimately satisfying job. In the amiably shaggy title story, the unwitting narrator answers an ad to drive an ice cream truck, leading to tangles with a gruff mayor, an exalted status among children, and an eye-opening experience of low-wage exploitation. The final story, “Robby,” underscores a theme of uncertainty running through all the stories. Two former friends meet on the street in a would-be forgettable encounter (“Seemed like a day that wouldn’t ever really get going”), but for the resonance of the men’s uncertainty about each other, captured by Pink’s splintered form. Pink’s incisive, empathetic collection will resonate with readers who share an appreciation for the absurd. (Mar.)