DRIVING BLIND

Arriving too late for a full review, grandmaster Bradbury's latest collection (Quicker Than the Eye, 1996, etc.) consists of 17 new tales and 4 reprints, 197497. Among the themes: gambling, WW II, a dead man who doesn't realize he's dead, sexual awakening and ghost stories, a mysterious theft, a sinister butcher and an equally sinister garbage disposal unit, a man with no face who's an expert car salesman (the title piece), circuses, moths, twins, September, a street-cleaning machine, a persecuted smart kid, Irish blarney, religion, and the death of Death. Typically diverse, veering between sentiment and nostalgia, and set forth in the curiously mannered, modern-antique style that has become Bradbury's trademark.