These seven stories spanning 30 years from the post-Hemingway New York writer Robert Stone are not only very good, they offer an excellent insight to his often over-long novels. At least three, possibly four - including the much anthologised "Helping" - are close to being the best of Stone. The title story is a minor classic.
Author of A Hall of Mirrors, the visionary chronicle of the post-Vietnam angst, Stone for many is the guru of that generation. He is also, on form, a very fine writer.
