The Man in the Buick [Paperback]

"Semper fidelis" could never be the motto of this bleak collection of 10 stories. Its subjects, in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, turn time and time again to extramarital liaisons to combat discontent and loneliness. Viable relationships are few and far between. In "The Tractor Accident," Garren, a would-be photographer stuck in his wife's upstate New York farm, pursues a woman who is "city." John, recovering in Mexico from his wife's abandonment, falls for a maid. Robert, the protagonist of "Maria," just wants to be a cowboy after 25 restless years in an East Coast marriage. Much of the women's unhappiness is child-centered. Fran in the title story suffers from empty-nest syndrome, while Linda can't get over the near-abduction of her baby ("Small Errands"). Only a 10-year-old mentioned in passing (the daughter of the son of an abusive ex-lover, now dead) is said to be "okay.... But her disappointments are still in the future." Most characters, like Claire in "Weeds," feel compelled to "make a change"; she leaves her marriage after offering the gardener next doorAa young "loser"Aa glass of water and then much more. "I couldn't tell you why," she tells her bewildered husband. "I don't know myself. I don't know. I really don't know." At the end of each story, the discontent and loneliness mostly persist. The writing is proficient, with stories told from multiple viewpoints, but heavy-handed. "The morning represented their marriage," we're told outright as spouses work side-by-side, but not together. Although the tales may appeal to those in similar life circumstances, they do not transcend their subject matter. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

George doesn't waste a word as she plunges the reader into her characters' lives with startling intensity, then skillfully reveals as much about them as it is necessary to know. There's scarcely a happy marriage to be found here; these are characters in fragile, dissolving, or broken relationships, seeking understanding and dealing with loss. A newly divorced academic on a writing sabbatical is obsessed with his Mexican maid, until he learns where her loyalty lies. A woman humiliated by the lover who telephones when her husband is at home feels both her affair and her marriage ending. A mother whose baby was stolen and recovered searches for the perpetrator while sensing her husband's absences. A man, pondering his wife's probable infidelity, brings news of his father's death to the woman who was his father's ill-treated mistress. These masterfully shaped stories mark George as a writer to watch. Michele Leber

Gears shift in unexpected ways in this collection of short stories. Some of the protagonists are men, some are women. Some are first person, some third person. Through their struggle between memory and a persistent present, George creates moving and honest fiction that is both ordinary and wonderful.

Kathleen E. George is associate professor of theater arts at University of Pittsburgh. Her stories have appeared in such publications as "Alaska Quarterly Review," "Cimarron Review," "North American Rewiew," and "Mademoiselle." She is also the author of "Rhythm in Drama," and "Playwriting: The First Workshop."