Library Journal
This collection consists of the 21 stories published in Spark's Collected Stories: I (Knopf, 1968) plus six new ones. Several of the stories originally appeared in the New Yorker. The short story is a form well suited to Spark's gifts as a writera delicate touch, a quiet sense of irony, and a vision of existence as a conflict between the temporal and the timeless. Frequently, her characters are involved in slightly sinister experiences that have unnerving effects (``The Twins,''``The Executor,''``Another Pair of Hands''). The situtations range from the development of a shrewd marriage of convenience (``The Fathers' Daughters'') to the depiction of a baby's view of World War I (``The First Year of My Life''). Crafted with impressive skill, the stories reflect a keen perception of human weakness and the possibility of its redemption. Sherrie Tuck, Episcopal Div. Sch./Weston Sch. of Theology Libs., Cambridge, Mass.