TORRID ZONE

Nature writer and self-confessed ``bird fanatic'' Maslow (Sacred Horses, 1994; Bird of Life, Bird of Death, 1986) turns his focus to fiction in this consistently good, remarkably varied collection. All seven stories are set on the Gulf Coast, but they range in time from the 16th century to the present day. Maslow's ability to create distinct and memorable characters capable of telling their own stories in their own strong voices allows him to tackle a variety of material with equanimity and impact. The opener (and one of the longest of the batch), ``The Last Lector,'' introduces Julieta Suarez, an elderly woman of Cuban ancestry who has been working for decades in a Tampa cigar factory. Julieta tells stories of the old days—focusing on the charming, doomed figure of Cesar Fuentes—to Carmen, a younger, jaded fellow employee. When, at story's end, it's revealed that Carmen has been listening to her Walkman throughout Julieta's rich reminiscing, the reader feels Julieta's dual sense of loss (her past, her connection with the future) with a sharp poignancy. In ``Africatown, Children,'' the voice of matriarch Mama Lulu (``one hundred years if she's a day'') is the beguiling guide; she recounts the origins of Africatown, USA, a place peopled by the descendants of Africans carried on the Clotilde, the last slave ship to ever land on American soil. ``The Healer: Chronicle of a Lost Expedition'' and ``A Mermaid Pining for Her Sailor'' are also narrated by feisty, worldly protagonists; each describes his adventures and life's story with aplomb. Not a tour de force, but (impressively) without a single clunker either; Maslow's gift for detail—perhaps perfected in his work as a naturalist—enables his slice-of-life sketches to add up to a rich and stirring whole.