B Horror: And Other Stories

""Real life isn't real life,"" philosophizes a cook at a fast-food restaurant while observing the panorama of human existence unfolding over the otherwise predictable course of his shift. Indeed, the characters in these 12 quirky slice-of-life stories, set in a fun-house version of middle America, often find their personal lives reflected in the bizarre yet oddly apt circumstances of their jobs. In ""Who Made You,"" a man realizes that his unemployment and indolence during a stifling summer heat wave are the coordinates of his self-created hell. An automobile factory worker in ""Robert's Bride"" discovers that his disaffection with his assembly-line job is mirrored in the strange mutations he observes in the appearance of a co-worker's fianc e. In the title tale, an actor who dresses in drag to play the victim role in party reenactments of B-movie horror scenes finds himself screaming more believably at the cruel behavior of his audience than at the monster. ""It wasn't the kind of scream I'd trained myself to make... it was a scream that came from within, a hellish scream, the kind of scream that shocks the screamer."" Mayo's (Centaur of the North) gnomic parables showcase his facility for reading deeper meanings in the banal moments of ordinary life and the disposable artifacts of popular culture. Some are sketchy and too reminiscent of experiments inspired by writing-class assignments. The best pieces--most notably, the poignant ""Mary Magdalena Versus Godzilla,"" in which the narrator uses a monster mask to scare his younger sister because it's the only way he knows to connect with her emotionally--shine with the professional polish of subtly wrought revelation. (Oct.)