All of Steve Stern's effervescent stories in this collection have a common relationship, either by setting or allusion, to the whimsically dangerous North Main Street neighborhood of Pinch—a mythical Jewish area perched atop the river bluff in Memphis. Here the voice of the Lord rises up from gas burners and out of pay phones. Here aging fathers-in-law live in backyard sheds and negotiate with the Angel of Death. Here is a land in which a host of very different characters share a common tendency to ignore the usually agreed-upon bonds of reality And in their rollicking wisdom all will confirm Susan Sontag's earlier inventory of Mr. Stem's talents: "Great brio, whiplash sentences, lots of energy, and charm."