Voices in the Night

Imagine a town crier delivering updates to the world in the form of newsletter or annual holiday card. This is the dominant voice of this latest collection from Millhauser, a Pulitzer Prize winner for Martin Dressler. Half the stories, including "Phantoms," "Mermaid Fever," "A Report on Our Recent Troubles," "Elsewhere," and "The Place," are told in the voice of The Town. "Arcadia," the darkest of the stories, is a brochure advertising a suicide retreat complete with a suite of amenities found only in a luxury resort. There is a touch of magic realism as well, including phantoms, ghosts, mermaids, and a magical bottle of furniture polish, all revealing a sense of loss, longing, and an emptiness that cannot be expressed by ordinary means. The weakest pieces, e.g., the lengthy "The Pleasures and Sufferings of Young Guatama," move beyond town life, but the change in tone and voice is quite jarring and not entirely successful.