A Congress of Wonders

Former Merry Prankster McClanahan hops back on the literary bus with his second book of fiction, arriving 13 years after his first--but then he began that one, the highly acclaimed novel The Natural Man, in the 1960s. McClanahan's focus here is elusive Professor Philander Cosmo Rexroat, B.S., M.S. and ""Pee Aitch Dee""--a beguiling, down-home flimflam artist who connects the three almost novella-length stories in this collection. Set during WW II in backwater Kentucky, the opening story, ""Juanita and the Frog Prince,"" recounts a maid's deliverance from an unlucky pregnancy through a magical encounter with a two-nosed dwarf awaiting trial for murder in the jail where she cleans cells. In the bittersweet title story, the fraudulent Dr. Rexroat, unabashedly opprobrious, is the proprietor of a phony freakshow central to this tale of a young boy's concern for the future of his older brother, who's headed to war. The final story, ""Finch's Song: A School Bus Tragedy,"" contemplates poetic justice for Finch, the sorely abused half-brother of Claude, the town bully, who has Finch scouring poolhall spittoons and ferrying Claude's obnoxious kids in the school bus. Artfully told, these droll, neo-gothic fairy tales are richly embroidered with threads of alchemy--and love. (May)