Men Who Would Be Good

In each of this collection's six short stories, Weaver ( The Eight Corners of the World ) paints the one-dimensional picture of a distant, repressed middle-aged man undergoing a crisis for which no one--including the reader--has any sympathy. The men have problems on the job, and their family lives consist mostly of the demands of nagging wives and sullen, dope-addicted children. The narrator in ``Whiskey, Whiskey, Gin, Gin, Gin'' uses liquor to assuage his fear of what the immediate future will bring. In ``Zen Golf,'' Clancy transcends the indignity of his job and the shrewishness of his wife by spending every spare moment on the golf course. These selfish men are incapable of examining their own flaws, and instead they blame everyone around them for their predicaments. Worse yet, the reader constantly is repelled by their outrageous racist and sexist sentiments. Only in the novella ``Under the World'' does Weaver veer from his theme. Huff, maligned because of his diminutive stature, gets a chance to shine in Vietnam when he is recruited to infiltrate the underground tunnel systems created by the North Vietnamese. The novella is intense as it builds to a gripping climax. (Apr.)