SLEEP

A gathering of 22 stories representing more than two decades of the career of National Book Award finalist Dixon (Gould, 1997, etc.), whose distinctively flat style (—Anyway, there’s my most vivid memory. Big deal, right?—) carries traces of both Hemingway and Mamet—with a bit of Woody Allen’s attitude mixed in. An incredibly prolific author who has published more than a dozen titles since the late 1970s, Dixon has established a cult following with work that straddles the border separating the experimental from the comic. Unreliable narrators predominate throughout, turning accounts of straightforward events (—A man stands at a street corner—) into idiosyncratic interior monologues (—Did it last sumer so again itll be tuf the1st few days but then ill be all rt—). This is clearly a collection aimed at fans, and Dixon is bound to have a limited audience at best. Nevertheless, newcomers to his work will find it a good introduction to one of the more original voices on the contemporary scene.