Ten Tales Tall and True

This volume (which contains more than ten short stories, by the way) feels like a younger cousin to his earlier Unlikely Stories Mostly. Gray create intelligent stories that are sometimes odd, sometimes enigmatic, often subtle, and occasionally quite over the top. If you're familiar with Gray, this book continues in the spirit of his other work.If you're not familiar with Gray, you should know that Gray writes, illustrates, and lays out his own books. He treats the book as a single physical artifact by paying attention to issues like pagination, layout, and integration of covers and title pages into the artistic whole of the book. If you like that kind of thing, he's worth looking at. If you like contemporary authors like William Gass or John Gardner, give him a try. For most readers Gray needs some easing into, and I would recommend you start with this book or Unlikely Stories Mostly.