THE ARCHERS AT HOME

Katinka Loeser writes so unassumingly you are likely to overlook her, which would be too bad. She did some short stories a few years ago (Tomorrow Will Be Monday, most of which centered around children, or death) and these duologues between Mr. and Mrs. Archer deal with what the psychiatrist of one of Mrs. Archer's friends calls the empty nest syndrome. The Archers are now at home, alone; Mrs. Archer has sent her last child off to school -- away; she finds that she's just ""taking up Space""; she thinks of selling the house (his lawn, his brickwork). She takes up a gram diel and yoga with other mothers of little birds who have flown--one of them is immobilized in the Lotus position; Mr. Archer however needs her care -- he has a cold; he has a fractured ankle and is hospitalized for a time; he goes through the ordeal of a physical with an antiseptically bluff young doctor; etc. etc. Some of these pieces have appeared in the New Yorker and they have many imperceptible virtues, perhaps the nicest kind to have, along with random humor and recognition. The Archers are people you might know and certainly will like.