Selected Shorts: Are We There Yet?

Like life itself, these stories are more about the journey than the destination. Trains, planes and automobiles form the loose thematic center. Gellhorn's “Miami–New York,” read by Joanna Gleason, is a 50-minute tale of two strangers who find temporary intimacy on a long flight. Gleason brings out all the subtle interchanges between an army captain and a lonely wife. David Rakoff also does an admirable job with Thurber's “A Ride with Olympy,” which pairs two motorists with dubious driving and linguistic skills. But like an old car, the story is slow to reach full speed, and Rakoff's mouth-smacking noises are distracting. Sonia Manzano shows a wonderful talent for dialogue as she performs Edward P. Jones's touching story about a lonely single mother seeking companionship on “An Orange Line Train to Ballston.” In Dorothy Thomas's “The Getaway,” Mia Dillon captures the Midwestern accents of a woman and her ornery son. While the stories are a mixed bag, enough of them are good enough to be worth the ride. (Feb.)