Bullies

Trow's stories are darkly whimsical - they all seem loosely set in a mouldy universe of hotel tenants, but there is a slipperiness about that setting, and in one or two cases, I wasn't sure the story was in the same place as the others. Some are morbidly hilarious - some are rather creepy and dark. I think some stories are stronger than others, but not enough to call it an uneven collection - it's unique, and curious, and certainly worth a read to fans of the short story, of cynicism and weirdness, and of a sort of bemused hopelessness about the human condition.