FICTION

YOU HAVE THE WRONG MAN Stories by Maria Flook (Pantheon: $22; 256 pp.) Almost all of Maria Flook’s sentences have the potential energy of objects about to be thrown and broken. Characters consistently deny the emotional chaos of terrifying situations to focus on survival, small daily details and hidden ideals to retreat to. A woman taking care of her 20-year-old emotionally disturbed niece remains, by an act of will, loving and unflappable. A young girl with a baby is abused by her boyfriend’s family, puts one foot in front of the other, goes to a shelter, is repulsed by the zealous hopefulness of the women who work there and goes home again. A young man living at home holds the image of a drowned girl, “her spirit collected or dispersed--where? He couldn’t imagine. . . . He preferred to think of the live girl. . . .” It is almost impossible to decide whether the characters in these stories will go on to lead successful lives or whether they will remain flotsam. In this way, the stories feel very much like photographs; a hint of the past and a wide-open future.