Honey: Stories

Once again Tallent ( Time with Children ; Museum Pieces ) shows a razor-sharp eye for telling domestic details and an uncanny sense of the minute shifts of emotion that can make or break a marriage or an affair. Most of the nine stories in this collection are in fact studies of marriage or of parents and children, and because Tallent launches them rather elliptically, sometimes they are somewhat slow to fully engage the reader. They almost invariably do so, however, and the rewards are well worth the effort. In ``Earth to Molly, '' an American poet goes to a reading in a Welsh industrial town, and her desperate attachment to her host enriches her return home. In ``Get It Back for Me,'' a child is an enthralled observer of a spectacular but routine family fight and its aftermath. ``James Was Here'' is a riveting day in the life of a man visiting two women now out of his life, wondering if he can create a new sense of himself by carrying a gun in his pocket; its resolution, like most of Tallent's endings, is mesmerically right and satisfying. ``The Minute I Saw You'' is a delightful portrait of a teenager in love with love and in California for the first time, which captures the seductive daffiness of Los Angeles to perfection. Tallent's evocation of place is extraordinary, whether summoning the New Mexico settings of most of the stories, or the harsh glitter of Ciudad Juarez in the story of that name. These are fully realized tales that each hint at the depth and complexity of a novel. (Nov.)