STORIES FROM THE SIXTIES

Mr. Elkin's brief preface doesn't leave much maneuvering room, but he does manage a quick limn of the genre, based let's say on the twin prongs of inspiration ("the brain's bum's rush") and a "learned" backlog of fictional assumptions. But his collection of fifteen prime stories at least illustrates his tenet that:". . . all stories drive all other stories out as surely as all music drives out all other music. . . ." Among the singular voices: Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation," William H. Gass' "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country," Peter Taylor's "Dean of Men," Saul Bellow's "Moseby's Memoirs," and John Updike's "Wife Wooing." Younger talents such as Leonard Michaels, Barton Midwood and Robert Coover are represented along with two older innovators — John Barth and Tillie Olsen — and other up and comers.