"Something Is Out There: Stories"

Richard Bausch is a writer, like Charles Baxter (see my post of 3/22/10), of whom I have been peripherally aware, but whose writing I have read very little of. He has published eleven novels and eight short story collections, several of which have been well-reviewed, well-received, and in some cases have won awards. A recent positive review of his new collection of short stories, "Something Is Out There" (Knopf, 2010), nudged me to sample his work. On the whole,I enjoyed the stories, and admired Bausch's writing. The stories focus on love, friendship, marriage, family, and all the mix-ups and miscommunications that often accompany those topics. Bausch is able to inhabit the minds of his characters, including women characters, in a convincing way. What stood out for me, in reading these stories, was a sort of mildness that pervades his stories, lulling readers into feeling that not much is happening. I personally sometimes appreciate this lack of overt drama and intensity. The rewarding qualities of Bausch's writing are the subtle undercurrents, the silent questions, the unspoken or indirect interchanges he so skillfully delineates. The import of some of his stories takes a while to sneak up on readers. I don't mean to imply that there are no events or emotions to be found; these are certainly present, and make readers want to keep reading. But the understated style shows that the author trusts readers to fill in some blanks themselves. Although this book is not one that would make me buttonhole my friends and demand that they immediately read it, it is a thoughtful, rewarding collection of stories.