When Saying No Isn't Enough: 2how to Keep the Children You Love Off Drugs

Prolific anthologist Solomon ( American Wives ) compiles here an excellent collection featuring such masters of the short story form as John Cheever, Raymond Carver, Tillie Olsen and Ann Beattie, as well as authors less frequently associated with the medium: Langston Hughes and Theodore Dreiser. Written over a period of nearly 100 years, these works are as notable for their quality as for their intrinsically compelling subject matter. Standouts for their deft blend of humor and sorrow, childhood wonder and adult resignation are vibrant tales by E. L. Doctorow and Lynne Sharon Schwartz. The young protagonist of Doctorow's ``The Writer in the Family'' rejects the selfishness of his dead father's relatives and pays belated tribute to the dreams of a man he had failed to know in the moving, funny letter that closes the story. Schwartz's ``What I Did for Love'' shows a woman in her mid-30s learning that small acts of responsibility and generosity are as important in their own way as her youthful dreams of changing the world. Virtually every story equals these two in their elegant, subtle and humble wisdom. (Nov.)