Far-Flung

From Library JournalThe characters in these terse, elliptical tales are burdened by the knowledge that something is missing from their lives. Cut off from a usable past and isolated from one another, they flounder about, desperately seeking someone or something with which to connect. In "Just Relax," a young woman leaving the Peace Corps takes a job as a Pilgrim at a Massachusetts theme park. "The Secret Dog" concerns a man who invents an imaginary pet to compensate for an unhappy marriage. While Cameron's stories typically involve young urbanites, some of the best here are set in a small Indiana town. Notable is "The Winter Bazaar," an achingly sad tale in which an old, empty house becomes a symbol of the peace and contentment denied to two lovers. Always stylish and often affecting, Cameron's work belongs in all collections of contemporary fiction.- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsThree stories at the book's end--all concerning the same Indiana family but all of whose characters are given long leash to act independently, non-conformingly, movingly--and the story Not the Point'' (a mother, having lost one teenage son to suicide, is anxious about her remaining teenage son's behavior) give notice that Cameron is able to write with emotional directness when he wants to. But he wants to so rarely here. Three-quarters of the stories are annoyingly flyweight, especially when they try to be hip-funny:Just Relax,'' The Cafe Hysteria,''The Secret Dog,'' The Near Future.'' Three stories try for more seriousness, involving emotional rejection:What?'' and Slowly'' andThe Meeting and Greeting Area''; these are stories, though, that seem so self-conscious about their homosexual protagonists that they labor beneath a smog of transposition and eagerness-to-please, leaving out all the fictional palpability of place and speech. A weak, puppy-ish, unsatisfying collection. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.