A Line of Cutting Women

Spanning the 22 impressive years of Calyx, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, these 37 selected short stories offer brief but powerful glimpses into the lives of women. In ""The Doe,"" by Molly Gloss, a woman runs over a pregnant doe and, seeking to relinquish the inevitable task of mercy killing to a man, learns that the gruesome task has less to do with gender than with assuming adult responsibility. Linda Hogan's ""Crow,"" in which a feisty but lonely grandmother loses her life savings, resembles a Native American fable, expressing deep meaning without drawing obvious conclusions. Magic realism colors Kathleen J. Alcala's ""The Transforming Eye,"" the tale of a sinister photographer and old family loves in Mexico. Kristen King's Pushcart Prize-winning ""The Wings"" is a marvelous allegory about a wild angel who visits a Mormon housewife nightly, disrupting the family's rigid, tightly controlled everyday life. Sandra Scofield's ""Loving Leo"" deals with love in old age; and, in the title story by Rita Marie Nibasa, a 17-year-old from a long ""line of cutting women"" becomes conscious of the hopelessness of domestic violence in her family and community. Avoiding the common trap of sacrificing quality for ideology, the editors of this anthology present exceptional, intelligent and stirring fiction. (Nov.)