If I’d Known You Were Coming

The most interesting and satisfying thing about Milliken’s debut collection is the ingenious way the 12 stories fit together. Though each selection stands alone, several characters reappear throughout in different contexts. For instance, Caroline, first seen as a five-year-old girl, shows up again in her teens as a heroine’s romantic rival, and yet again in subsequent stories. Not only does this create an offbeat tone, but it makes an appealing statement about complexity of character. The protagonists tend to be intense observers. In “A Matter of Time,” Lorrie worries that her husband, Marty, an unsuccessful actor with little ambition, will fail to network with the successful movie producer Nick at a party. In “Blue,” Josie has just quit college and, feeling restless and guilty, struggles to get her bearings. In structure, the stories are loose and transparent; the reader witnesses small but revealing moments that resonate with greater significance. The shortest stories tend to come across as exercises, with schematic rather than organic details (a cowhide skirt, a dead phone tethered to a car lighter socket), but are few enough to be outnumbered by the stronger entries. The whole is greater than the sum of the already pretty impressive parts. (Oct.)