HERE BENEATH LOW-FLYING PLANES

Eight stories in a first collection, lightened by buoyant wit.

In “Such a Big Mr. England,” a new grandfather regrets that his son and daughter-in-law have chosen the day of Princess Diana’s funeral to bring his new granddaughter from California to visit: He’s getting phone calls from friends, who consider him an authority on the royal family, and this brings him greater satisfaction than being grandpa of “an ugly baby.” His daughter-in-law displays her own resentments in a not-so-subtle manner. The swiftly moving “Bike New York!” finds Derek, 30, the weekend before his wedding, failing to meet buddies for a 42-mile trek through New York City. Instead, he rides with a high-school junior named Serena, who leads him off-track to her parents’ bakery, shows him catalogues of wedding cakes and her own portfolio of photographs, and leaves him with a shimmering memory “as he slipped from the point of focus in his own life.” “The Marrying Kind” brings an awkward situation—a woman who has had a last fling with a former boyfriend arrives at his wedding knowing she’s pregnant with his child—to a not entirely satisfying end, and “Our Little Lone Star,” about a woman of 62 driving west during tornado warnings, has too-pat a wrap-up. The title piece presents an ensemble of voices—Janie, just home with her first baby; her husband, Jeff; best friend Hazel, and her baby brother, T.J., who’s also Hazel’s lover—all reflecting on love and marriage. This time, Feitell accomplishes a splashy close that pulls everything together: “Above the beach the small plane chugs and tilts, the underbelly catching a ray of sun and zapping it toward Manhattan, toward Jersey, Ohio, California. . . . [There] is a moment of weightless stall. Think of it! That one moment! Where is the time for indecision? Here on earth, beneath low-flying planes, there are birthdays, and bike rides, feet slipping into shoes.”

Altogether, a talented newcomer, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. (See Desaulniers, above.)