A TABLE NEAR THE BAND
By
A new collection of short stories which succeeds The Birthday Party and which displays again a wide range in character, a pleasant, polished tone. There is the pretty girl and the men she took over; a first dance and a first disappointment; the trouble blown up by a borrowed book; a family reunion and domestic dissonance; the man who wanted to kill his wife but was anticipated by a natural death; a study in detection; a fraud; a suicide; a fantasy; etc. etc. These stories, which have perhaps no great importance, are entertaining, continue a tradition which is decorous and facile.