Rare & Endangered Species CL

Bausch has offered us two fine novels, Violence and Rebel Powers , since his last collection, The Fireman's Wife and Other Stories. The eight previously published stories gathered with the title novella here testify that he has held on to the delicate touch that has long been the mark of his shorter works. Most of the stories examine relationships that cross generations, mainly between grown children and their parents. In ``Weather,'' a daughter, whose marriage is in jeopardy, spars tensely with her mother on a shopping trip to a mall; an incident of surprising, if minor, violence clears the air between them. It is with the novella, however, that Bausch commands the greatest attention. An older couple plan to move from the home and land where they raised their son and daughter. The abrupt and startling death of one leads the other and the children to reevaluate their expectations of love. Writes one character to another: ``I ask you to imagine how it can feel like starvation to be intimate with someone you can't really reach, the sort of person whose love is somehow only partly there . . . .'' Death, birth, the arcing of love--this is Bausch territory, mapped with a fine, unwavering hand. (Aug.)