James Gallant's highly imaginative story collection provides a kaleidoscopic journey through the evolution of the classical guitar and guitar music as the backdrop to the hurly-burly of western cultural history that includes whimsical cameos of historical characters such as Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, and Jean-Paul Marat. In a style that is reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Peter Cameron, these fictions make twists and turns as surprising and delightful as the music Mr. Gallant celebrates.