Best of the Missouri Review Fiction, 1978-1900

The 25 stories in this mostly superior collection include work by writers both long-established and newly arrived on the short fiction scene. If there is a common thread to these tales, it is that they share, in the editors' words, an ``authoritative voice'' that draws the reader fully--and fulfillingly--into each author's creative realm. Standouts are Russell Banks's fascinating ``Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,'' in which an extraordinarily beautiful man becomes obsessed with a hideously ugly woman; Barton Wilcox's ``Ferguson's Wagon,'' a masterly piece about the emotional significance of a child's toy and how it brings together a father and son after years of mutual disgust; Stephanie Bobo's ``Recognizable at a Distance,'' a woman's painfully honest confession about the breakup of her parents' marriage and its debilitating effects on her; Robert Thompson's shocking ``Under the Swaying Curtain,'' dealing with the consequences of drug and sexual abuse on the febrile imagination of a young orphan. Also featured are Paul Bowles, Amy Hempel, Naguib Mahfouz and Raymond Carver. Sapp and Michalson are short-story writers, Morgan is the author of The Assemblers. (Apr.)