In this sparkling collection of stories drawn from the surreal edge of life, playful irony vies with more poignant evocations of solitude, mortality, and the dawn of sexual awareness - all bodied forth in a language that is precise, elegant, and immediate. Storytellers are liars, but as Picasso said, "art is the lie that tells the truth," and deceit is a motif here: lies of omission or commission, in words or in deeds, to gain love or repel it, and...