Things Not Seen and Other Stories: And Other Stories

Williams's first collection offers tales of heartache and slight domestic dislocations, its focus held tight on pain. In ``Afghanistan,'' a husband wonders if his adulterous guilt has ruined his marriage as he struggles to interpret his wife's cryptic message that she has ``gone to Afghanistan.'' The bereaved young mother of ``Sole Custody'' learns that her ex-husband believes their dead child has come back to him with the birth of his new son. Despite their compelling themes, however, the stories lack visceral impact. Williams seems more concerned with creating careful structures for her characters' feelings than with conveying the feelings themselves. Postures are pat: A woman searches her face in a mirror to see if tragic news has left visible changes; a mother undergoing therapy for childhood abuses kneels by her own daughter's bed in the light of a Wonder Woman lamp. Humor surfaces in stray lines (``My mother held the Southwestern patent on saying something nice or not saying anything at all; until I learned to read I was sure Euphemism was a book of the Old Testament''), but it, too, is overdetermined. Williams has a talent for close observation and a valuable sense of the ridiculous; it remains for her to develop more confidence in these gifts. (May)