The Shoplifter's Apprentice: Stories

A collection of diverse short stories lay bare minute segments of life, probing such events as a newspaper-woman's coming to terms with her former college roommate's life, and the beautiful and seductive face sometimes shown by evil

These 11 supple stories by novelist Lesser ( The Other Woman ) quietly, deftly probe the complicated relations of their characters. Lesser writes about now-generation young women who plug along at literary/journalistic or arty jobs while hovering on the margins of other people's lives. Some of these women are recovering from bruising love affairs or, as in "Pressure for Pressure" and the prize-winning "Passover Wine," from abortions. Lesser's protagonists scribble in coffee shops, listen through walls to panting lovers ("For Solo Piano") or talk into a tape recorder, "the way you might to a dog." In "Sara's Friend," June is irrevocably drawn into the simple-hearted but finally disturbing orbit of a retarded woman from a nearby asylum. In the ambitious "Eating Air," Rachel brings a rich, fragile pie to an old friend who has just given birth, only to feel excluded by the friend, her husband and infant, who form a tight new-family trio sustained on health food. The collection, outstanding for its lyricism and control, is a pleasure to read.
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