FICTION

DISCOVERING AMERICA by Liza Wieland (Random House: $20; 265 pp.) There’s a type of character that dominates “Discovering America,” Liza Wieland’s first short-story collection. At least half of the pieces feature a restless girl-woman with an emotionally angular quality that stops just short of being true alienation. Other character types appear in more than one story as well, though with lesser frequency. The oddly magical misfit boy. The woman who is involved with a sweet, stable man and doesn’t understand why she still feels so hungry and desperate. The sweet, stable man who doesn’t understand why either. Wieland’s work is haunted by the same small group of people, which makes her book feel like a novel trapped in the body of a short-story collection.

It’s a good novel though, full of old-fashioned sadness. In fact, many pieces seem as if they take place in another era, in spite of the mention of videos, 7-Elevens and home pregnancy tests. These are stories about travel, about the vast expanse of territory both outside our car and inside our hearts. Liza Wieland clearly knows how to write. The problem is, “Discovering America” confines all the similar characters and situations back-to-back, which ultimately blurs the boundaries between each story and drains away much of their power.