At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom: Stories

The stories in Hempel's new collection follow people through crises and emergencies, waiting for the moment that would snap them out of their seeming lives, yet frequently cut off from meaning in the end. A housewife in "Under No Moon" is mysteriously bent on seeing a comet, but in a minor comedy of errors fails to do so. The earnest and foolish young mother in "The Center" attempts to sponsor a destitute child, all the while behaving with the self-serving zeal of a super-yuppie consumer. In "The Harvest," a narrator reconstructs, then deconstructs, the events leading up to and following a motorcycle injury that leaves a lasting psychological wound. ISBN 0-394-57174-6: $17.95.