Circles I Move in

A stunning collection of stories, sometimes humorous, sometimes gently grim, sometimes starkly sobering, but always well crafted and well seen. Diane Lefer takes us everywhere, from slum tenements glittering with despair and Mexican villages smoldering with hope, to sparkling glib talk at the dining tables of the newly enlightened and flashing costumes of teenage strippers staging a performance of "Gypsy." Yet in each story we see the same thing, the light that shines through our desires and illusions. And we end up in the same place, a world that props up the worst of our good intentions and tries to destroy the best.

Diane Lefer is one of the great undersung writers of her generation: brilliant is a cliché with anyone else; describing her, it's a modest mot-juste. Her stories in "The Circles I Move In" foreshadow in their intelligence and quirky, uncompromising originality the masterful collection just out (June,2000) called "Very Much Like Desire". In this second collection, Lefer's stories offer all the fire and revelation the first collection promised. People are worse than imperfect, Lefer's story reveal again and again; but even the most humble and unloveable are worth caring for, paying attention to -- this is a bracing and rare point of view, battling against the lies and sentimentality of mainstream culture. In both collections, her stories refuse to say "happy ever after," and 'all is understood' -- but at the same time they DO offer revelation and whatever redemption and even solace art can offer: greater awareness, empathy, and the relief of knowing at least sometimes, the chaos of real, injuring, undistorted lives can come together into momentary order, vision, even joy.