Family Terrorists CL

While some may regard family ties as a safety net, and others see them as an entangling web, it's not an either/or proposition for the families in Nelson's third collection, consisting of seven stories and a novella. With clarity and compassion, the author portrays the family as both familiar yet foreign, essential yet suffocating. What brings these pieces to vibrant life is Nelson's ability to make every incident provoke ``feelings . . . that run the gamut in a matter of seconds,'' as Lynnie Link says in the title work. Confused about her parents' decision to remarry after being divorced, Lynnie nonetheless journeys from Texas to Montana for the wedding, picking up her brother en route. Her reactions to him, her sisters and parents are a mixture of love, annoyance and ambivalence--as theirs are to Lynnie--in this clan that terrorize each other with both the best and the worst intentions. The strongest stories here are those in which no one can be safely pigeonholed. A few less compelling and less convincing entries (``Naked Ladies''; ``Crybaby'') lack density and cumulative power. For, as Nelson powerfully demonstrates in her best work, the essence of being alive is to experience many contradictory feelings at once, especially about those closest to us. (Apr.)