Rivka Galchen has an impressive way of creating ambitious stories that could easily come off as pretentious, but don't. I really enjoy her scientific style of magical realism, informed by her training as a physician. Maybe it's that training that keeps her from coming off as a literary snob even as she slyly references stories from across the canon.

While I found the first half of the book to be stronger than the second half, one of my favorites was "Wild Berry Blue," a story later in the collection that describes a preteen's first experience with unrequited love. I thought she captured so well the anxiety and thrill of fixating on a somewhat random love object and suddenly feeling like everything in your childhood is pointless. I especially related to when she says that she expected to see him when she went out to check the mail, even though he didn't even live in her neighborhood. To this day, when I see a certain make of car drive by I think just for a moment that my middle school crush could be inside.

Overall I thought these stories were very well crafted. She's a real master of the unreliable narrator whose fantasy you find yourself rooting for. ( )

I liked a few of the stories that Rivka Galchen got published in the usual magazines very much, but wasn't thrilled about her novel, "Atmospheric Disturbances, which leaned a bit too hard on a single plot conceit for my taste. This collection reminded me of why I'd liked her stuff so much, though. There are stories here that apply experimental rigor to literary science fiction ("The Region of Unlikeliness") and others, both set in Oklahoma, that describe the seismic emotional shifts of early adolescence. But Galchen's real interest seems to be the uncanny. Events that would seem jarring, or else too cute, in the hands of a less-skilled writer seem natural, even pleasant, in hers. and her stories, even those that seem more like intriguing studies than problems solved, are little worlds filled with infinite surprise. The author's a bit of a purposeful mimic, and drags some modes of expression that aren't native to the short story into literary terrain. Her narrators, generally young and female, employ scientific terminology or arch academic jargon -- as in the title story -- to describe what happens, but the overall effect is curiously musical. It's their openness to their these unusual experiences that stays with you most: her protagonists confront strangeness in their lives with optimism and good humor and the author's prose, which is filled with risk-taking verbal juxtapositions and unexpected images but remains light and fluid throughout, seems to encourage the reader to adopt a similar attitude, if only for the length of time that it takes to read a short story. The author's belief in narrative and her well-crafted sentences act as leveling forces on her plots. This isn't for everyone, but I found this stuff delightful. Rivka's a genuine talent, and she seems very much in her groove here. ( )

The ten stories in this collection are by turns startling, bemusing, quirky, and real, or conversely, profound. Each is very much its own thing; style, diction, even the narrative approach vary markedly. About the only thing in common, I imagine, is the response most people would have to reading one of them, something like, “Who wrote that?” Any one of them would have been reason enough for me to read everything else by its author. Collectively it’s almost a surfeit.

One thing that struck me was how Galchen’s phrases, her word choices, and even her juxtapositions would catch me up short. I found I couldn’t anticipate. And rather than find that distressing, here I found it delightful. Whether it was the economic valuations of “Sticker Shock,” or the weight of the crush in “Wild Berry Blue,” something here felt excessively true, but gently so. A story such as “The Late Novels of Gene Hackman,” probably shouldn’t work as well as it does. But it does. And so you begin to think that Galchen is doing something very impressive — pushing the short story form itself in new directions. Or maybe she’s got a knack for a modern idiom that I’ve only just now cottoned on to.

Other than those already mentioned, my favourites included: “American Innovations,” “The Lost Order,” and, “Once an Empire.” Your favourites may differ.

Certainly recommended. ( )

The stories in this collection by Galchen, an imaginative and talented writer whose debut novel I read a few years ago, almost entirely feature young women who are emotionally isolated and adrift, frequently involve things that aren't real (such as objects flying out of an apartment on their own, a woman growing a breast on her back), and are written in a tone that distances the reader just as the women seem distanced from their own lives. They tend to lack much plot as well. There are certain recurring themes in the stories, such as highly educated women with professional jobs feeling disconnected from their husbands and even from their professions, dead fathers reappearing, "outsiders" living in Oklahoma, and these have something of a semiautobiographical feel to them when one reads the whole collections.

Another aspect to this collection, as touted on the cover flap, is that the stories "are secretly in conversation with canonical stories," including ones by Thurber, Borges, and Gogol. Well, not so secretly since we're told that up front. However, not having read any of the stories that these are "in conversation with," I had to read them on their own. Of course, as with any collection, I liked some more than others, and I particularly enjoyed "The Lost Order," "The Entire Northern Side Was Covered by Fire," "Real Estate," "Dean of the Arts," and "The Late Novels of Gene Hackman." I was not as fond of the ones with the unrealistic elements, and I found "Wild Berry Blue" a tad creepy.

This book isn't for everyone, and I wasn't entirely wowed either because of its minimalist and distancing tone. But Galchen is a very interesting writer.

3.5 stars.
( )