Malingering: Stories

Misfits with wacky ideas populate these endearingly skewed stories, which with one exception are set in London and Los Angeles. Andy, who ``has the temporary, presentient conscience of a displaced ghost'' when he leaves a woman, puts the moves on his psychologist landlord despite her distasteful dog and jealous ex-boyfriend. Chloe, who is having an affair with a pizza deliverer named Skitz, feels that ghosts inhabit her body when she is menstruating and is fired from her job at a concession stand for failing to stand up straight and say thank you. Gossip columnist Havoc roams London in search of news but is done in by a false plant--her assistant insists that leftist singer Billy Bragg is backing Margaret Thatcher--and her own naivete. In another story, Havoc and a group of acquaintances become Barbie and Ken dolls, the women with pointy C cups and the man with no sex organs. The sense of all love being doomed can become repetitive, and occasionally the tales wander off rather than end. Furthermore, when minor characters pop up repeatedly it seems more like an inside joke than an attempt to link them. Still, Compo ( Life After Death ) has an inimitably original viewpoint. (Nov.)