A collection of powerful short stories set in North Carolina includes "Charlotte," about a professional wrestling extravaganza that uncovers a young couple's differences, and "Gettysburg," in which a middle-aged man falls in love--with his wife. Earley has written eight short stories about regular folks living in North Carolina, coping with the trials of their existence. None of the characters is glamorous, but all reveal a basic humanity. Earley's style varies from pure narrative to stream of consciousness. In "The Prophet of Jupiter," a damkeeper intersperses the story of Lake Glen with his feelings about his estranged wife's carrying another man's child. "Aliceville" is a charming story about a young boy who sees a large flock of geese while out with his uncle and returns to hunt them. The title story portrays an older couple's response to the wife's breast cancer and mastectomy. Three of the stories feature young Jim Glass and his eccentric family. In each, the mother strives to keep her deceased husband's memory alive by endlessly telling stories about him. While the subject matter is not extraordinary, this collection is engaging and down to earth. For general readers. - Kimberly G. Allen, MCI Corporate Information Resources Ctr., Washington, D.C. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Tony Earley centers this collection of stories on people and places in North Carolina. He blends reality into his fiction to create earthy, hometown stories with tremendous emotional depth and impact. In "Charlotte," the Southeastern Wrestling Association has left town, and people will never be the same; Jim Glass Jr. revisits his memories in "Aliceville," "Story of Pictures," and "My Father's Heart"; and a married couple faces the aftermath of cancer treatment and a mastectomy in "Here We Are in Paradise." Earley's style tracks seemingly disjointed ramblings through the minds of his protagonists, but as the stories progress, these ramblings form a cohesive pattern that suddenly clicks into place and leads the reader to the realization of a singular purpose. Universally appealing but recommended particularly for southern literature collections. Melanie Duncan Six of the eight stories in this debut collection have appeared previously in magazines ranging from Harper's to Mississippi Review, and one (``Charlotte'') has been reprinted in two ``best of'' anthologies. All of Earley's work is considerable, despite the tell-tale MFA polish and neatness. Though very much southern in setting and subject, Earley's tales often sound as flat and affectless as the New South sensibility he records. The much-reprinted ``Charlotte'' is an unabashed bit of nostalgia for a lost time in that North Carolina city, before pro basketball came to town, when garish pro wrestling instead held sway. The young male narrator of ``The Prophet From Jupiter'' suffers a similar loss when his wife leaves him for a smooth-talking cop with no appreciation for the area's rich history. Nostalgia and loss come together in ``Gettysburg,'' in which a former UNC jock, traveling through the unforgiving North, realizes the awful mistake he made when he encouraged his wife to have a tubal ligation early in their 18-year marriage. Childlessness figures in the title story as well, a post-operative mastectomy patient's reflection on her long, lustless marriage to a decent lug--proving that a good man is all too easy to find. In ``Lord Randall,'' a 34-year-old janitor remains flabbergasted by his still sexually active parents and their addiction to goofy get- rich schemes. The last three stories, with some repetition, tell about the narrator's strange life in small town North Carolina, where he was raised by his widowed mother and her bachelor brothers. Two of the pieces celebrate the simple wonders and mystery of ordinary things. Full of folksy platitudes about ``our stories,'' and how they go on, and the world being ``crazy with all kinds of luck,'' Earley's debut nevertheless reflects some genuine insight into ordinary people. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.