For the Garden State, his 1988 collection of short stories, Gary Krist received the highly prestigious Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The reviews were entusiastic. "Smart and tender short stories written with enticing crispness...Krist is a remarkable writer, and just starting," said the Los Angeles Times. Bone by Bone, like the Garden State, takes its characters from the middle class of New Jersey, adding Brooklyn and upstate New York. Children, lovers, senior citizens; salesmen, morticians, college administrators. People of every possible sexual persuasion-including those who are not sure. But while Krist's humor thrives, his canvas now has darker, deeper tones as he explores the loneliness of misfits, the pain of separations, and the uneasiness of everyday relationships. A thought provoking, different, memorable collection of short stories, beautifully written. In his welcome second collection of polished and perceptive stories, Krist ( The Garden State , Harcourt, 1988) compassionately and humorously limns the lives of people in trouble. In "Baggage," a man's friends jauntily gather to help him move; everyone knows but no one mentions that he is leaving his crippled girlfriend. The lovely, bittersweet "Eclipse" chronicles a divorced man's outing with his sons to watch the solar eclipse. As each tale unfolds, characters and situations become more unconventional: in "Bone by Bone," a woman cuts herself off from the outside world as she retreats into insanity; and "Medicated" shows a widow still fragile after the senseless murder of her husband beginning a dangerous relationship with a mentally unstable man. Three related stories movingly explore a disintegrating marriage from the son's point of view; in the third, "Numbers," Krist artfully evokes a boy's coming of age at the time of the Vietnam draft lottery. Recommended for most collections. - Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. In the title story of this satisfying collection, Hilma Vlieck is an indexer of books who has more than one pressing problem. An urgent deadline demands she toil away on her latest project, but constant telephone calls (from her editor pressuring her to complete the task at hand and her soon-to-be ex-husband imploring her to consider a reconciliation) only serve to exacerbate a tense situation. In this and many of his stories, Krist presents a quirky and soulful scenario consisting of a commonplace predicament that requires something more than his bewildered character has to give. Alice Joyce