GOODNIGHT SILKY SULLIVAN

A debut collection of six stories from Alberts (the novel Tempting Fate, 1987)—a writer especially good at weaving together, in a few pages, a saatisfying tapestry of voice, character, situation, and detail. The standout here is ``Blood Sand,'' about Daniel, a New York investment broker who throws over his wife and suburban life and moves to Hermosa, New Mexico, where he buys up ten acres and begins to build what a neighbor calls his ``hippie house.'' The story covers some 15 years, during which Daniel—alienated from his affluent parents as well as his East Coast origins—divorces, turns blue-collar, marries a local Hispanic girl, then divorces again before finding both love and acceptance. Likewise, the haunting title piece, told as a series of vignettes and family snapshots, covers a lot of ground in the life of an unhappily married man, a lawyer with an office job in the family factory. ``Between Revolutions: Holiday, 1982'' is a powerful (and more concentrated) tale about Grisha, a Russian teacher of English who wants to consummate his affair with Kate, an American exchange teacher, but can't find an apartment where the lovemaking might happen. It's a funny-sad story, juxtaposing the bleakness of Russian life with Kate's high-spirited American expectations. The same is true in ``Russia Is a Fish,'' except that here Kate wants to marry Kolya, a vigorous ex-seaman, only after he's lost interest in her. As for the other pieces: ``Dealing'' is a dreary tale of drugs and strung- out mornings, while ``Veterans'' is just a sketch about a woman's fascination with her veteran boyfriend and with memories of her own life in the 60's. Originally, the most impressive stories here—some of which first appeared in American Fiction and Nimrod—read like small novels, by turns lyrical and gritty.