Tight Spaces

The 36 brief autobiographical pieces in this collection are independent short stories by three black women writers connected by ties of friendship, memory and kinship. In her introduction, Molina states that the collaboration came about when Scott shared a writing assignment (while in graduate school at the University of Iowa) with her friend High, who, in turn, called Muhanji, Kesho's aunt. It is apparent that the memoirs are laden with meaning for the three writers, but they fail to make their experiences significant to the reader. In ""The Scales of Superman,'' Scott writes: ``The liquid life of American Black Women is taking no form, like mercury in a broken thermometer splattered all over the bathroom floor.'' But depictions of real life in literature do require formand sensitive attention to the effective use of language. (January)