And Dreams Are Dreams

From the metafictional to the fabulous, this evocative tangle of overlapping, intertwining and conflicting stories from the prolific Vassilikos (Z) whimsically renders the colors and contradictions of contemporary Greece. Themes of exile and repatriation, personal mythology, political decline, the weight of history and, ubiquitously, the importance of dreaming resonate through a deceptively lighthearted narrative. The title story recounts the revolutionary political impact of a newspaper based entirely on people's dreams. In ``the white bear,'' the escapades of a performing bear are tracked throughout the country, including an escape from his keeper in downtown Athens. Meanwhile, the devout and beautiful Dona Rosita appears hither and thither in the book, ultimately giving her heart-literally, in a transplant operation-to her beloved Don Pacifico. And ``stories of taxi drivers'' chronicles several memorable if rather surreal tales picked up from cabdrivers by an overly curious narrator. Vassilikos's singular mixture of self-consciousness, naturalism, allegory and caprice results in fiction both provocative and entertaining. (Nov.)