A weblike illustration mapping the relationships of 30 characters kicks off Franklin's (Liner Notes
) collection of interconnected short stories that run the gamut from half-baked to heartbreaking. The latter includes the first story, "Early Girls," about Lucy, who mourns her dead fiancé as she helps prepare for her mother's second wedding. Lucy's friends Jenna, who finds solace in baking, and Gabrielle, a doctor struggling with the idea of motherhood, have rough goes of it in other stories. Franklin has a harder time with male characters, as in "Community Service," in which a teacher who works at a school for "troubled teens" breaks down while supervising his students on a community service outing. Franklin's smart prose sees her characters through rites of passage including first sexual encounters, marriage and motherhood, as well as difficulties such as terminal illness, infidelity and widowhood. Highlights include "Kindling," a story of two roommates and their communal living situation; "A Map of the Area," set in an upscale hippie retreat; and "The Math of the Fourth Child," about two women trying to predict the future of a yet-to-be-conceived child. A handful of shorter pieces feel unfinished, but there are enough thought-provoking stories to pull readers through. (Oct.)
