A Friendly Deceit

With deceit as its central theme, this lackluster collection of short fiction poses various--but ultimately limited--scenarios in which people fool themselves and others as a means of maintaining their (miserable) survival. With so much blind trickery going on, there is not much room for self-examination, the result being that many of Johnson's ( Distant Friends ) characters are hardly more than cliches. There is the husband who believes that his barren wife, now in her sixties, can regain her happiness if he replaces the china and silver that were stolen from their home one day by a pregnant burglar and her henpecked husband; a bitter, successful career woman who has deluded herself into thinking she could use ambition to escape the pain of her past; and stunted, fatherless boys whose realities are irresponsibly manipulated by their mothers for the women's own pathological needs. Several of these stories feel unfinished, ending unsatisfactorily, as though Johnson gave up when he realized his types could take him only so far. The author is a proficient writer, and there are fragments here that keep the reader engaged, but the collection as a whole disappoints. (June)