Loving Wanda Beaver

In a world that has quietly and unexpectedly gone tilt, the delightful, engaging characters in these stories and novella find their own way to regain equilibrium. A processing clerk at the Institute for the Study of American Sexual Appetite, Library of Desire section, longs for the attentions of a summer corn detasseler in "Loving Wanda Beaver," the irresistible and unpredictable title story that has also been selected for Prize Stories 1995: The O. Henry Awards. In the novella "Almost Home," Decker and his dog have fled the city for a rural life that is everything but tranquil as he encounters some very strange neighbors, a forest fire, a runaway bear, and other seemingly inexplicable acts of violence and acceptance.