The Life and Times of Major Fiction

All of the 14 stories in this collection are very good, and several are perfect gems. Baumbach, author of eight previous works of fiction, writes about ordinary people living essentially normal lives, but does so with such inventiveness and humor that their stories are transformed into something extraordinary. His characters bring fresh perspectives to bear on the world. They retell tales, veering from the truth, resculpting it to fit their mood or their audience. Relying on rumor and imagination, the title story's narrator pieces together the history of an enigmatic friend. In ""Who Shall Escape Whipping,'' an old desk calendar's cryptic note, ``Call L,'' piques a character's curiosity. Who was L? Was L ever called? The apparently dispassionate narrator of ``Passion,'' the story of a failing marriage, ultimately shows himself to be one of that marriage's problems. Baumbach is not afraid to take risks with his fiction, and in this collection they pay off handsomely. (May 19)