Joel Rose

Edited by Joel Rose and Catherine Texier

From Library Journal

These 25 stories seem as though they were written in the near future, a time when violent, sexy cynics rule the streets and technology has replaced intimacy but people have not yet forgotten how to laugh. There is little for Norman Rockwell to illustrate but plenty that readers will admire. A highlight is Barry Yourgrau's "Oak," in which a member of the gentry dukes it out with a psycho shepherdess as his mom coaches ("I know how them Bo Peeps go at it. She'll fake yer high to the left, then try to come under low right. . . ."). Peter Cherches, Gary Indiana, and Patrick McGrath are noteworthy, and Roberta Allen writes like a latter-day Boccaccio.

-- David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee