Bioy Casares (The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata, 1989; The Dream of Heroes, 1988, etc.)—once a collaborator with his fellow Argentine Borges—is a gently funny writer who in his short stories gives play to an entertaining surrealism and talent for disexpectation. He has an unerring talent for genre, too: the travel diary (``Our Trip [A Diary]''—in which the whimsy comes more from a cast of different imaginary female companions than from the sights seen) or the shaggy-dog-story-form (the title story, or ``A Meeting in Rauch,'' or ``Underwater''—in which great surprises are in store for a traveller who finds himself operating in someone else's fantastic context) or the simple anecdote (``Regarding A Smell''). Continually inventive throughout—though occasionally a little overblown and toying—and therefore the cumulative effect of this quite small book is very pleasant.