From Publishers Weekly
Ely ( Time Out ) offers 18 stories that begin suspensefully, hold the reader's attention with simple sentences and avalanche progression and, just as revelation seems at hand, fall victim to unsatisfying conclusions. These finales, calculated to shock or to sadden, often involve death or departure. "The Squirrel," the tale of an acrobat's vertiginous climb of a sequoia and his joyous discoveries upon reaching the top, ends predictably, while the claustrophobic "Going Backward," in which a group of young people choosing to live by 19th-century means is overrun by curious tourists, suffers for its melodramatic end. Ely proves adept at evoking nostalgia--time's passage is affectingly depicted in "Indiana Summer"--but can become maudlin, as in "Old Flame," the meeting of a successful, disillusioned woman and her unambitious, content former college sweetheart. Humor marks "The Language Game," in which a language expert employs pig latinstet.eed to defeat his brilliant nemesis in a test of linguistic knowledge, and "A Middle-Aged Nude," an ironic jab at art and art criticism. While Ely's concepts are unquestionably strong and diverse, the collection is flawed by a repetitive plot formula.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Peculiar is perhaps the only word that does justice to the wide range of stories included in this second collection by the author of such novels as Seconds and The Tour. Here, Ely shows himself to be--as ever--a producer of striking effects, round- the-bend characters, and Halloweenish events. The title tale concerns a lonely suburban housewife ensconced in a home rigged with so many burglar-repellent devices that ``it's as safe as Fort Knox.'' During her husband's frequent absences, however, she discovers dangers of a more insular sort, as she grows dependent on the company of her Always Home system, which produces recorded voices to ward intruders off. In the end, the voices take over completely and drive the poor hausfrau out. Other unnervers include the stories of a multinational schizophrenic who, in the mind-set of a Japanese, disembowels himself, and that of a renowned gourmet whose tastes become so refined that he dies of starvation after being unable to locate a good meal. Ely's collection also holds a few clunkers, like the didactic and simple-minded ``Rockefeller's Daughter,'' as well as occasional, welcome mood swings--''Indiana Summer,'' for instance, a reminiscence about a boy's sojourns with his grandmother. Almost all of these stories first appeared in magazines (including Atlantic, Playboy, and Redbook), where, taken singly, they possibly would have made their mark. But in this eye-glazing circus parade, it's the author's showiness that finally stands out. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
