Near Flesh: Stories

This delightfully offbeat collection from Geek Love author Dunn (1945–2016) mixes tales of surprising encounters with those of unsettling dislocations. It begins with a series of flash fictions including “The Flautist,” an evocative two-pager about a woman charmed by her flute-playing taxi driver on the way home from a classical concert. Darker tones imbue the longer stories. Thelma, the protagonist of the title entry, plans to celebrate her 42nd birthday by having sex with one of the four life-size robots she keeps in her closet. Angry and anxious over an upcoming business trip, she chooses a robot named the Wimp, built to withstand abuse (“she had saved the Wimp’s purchase price several times over in repair bills”). Gilly, the protagonist of “The Well,” is similarly wound tight, plagued by fear in the isolated new home she shares with her husband in Northern California, especially when he’s away at work. Towered over by sequoias, Gilly feels like she’s living at “the bottom of a well.” Though some readers will grow weary of the recurring themes of anxiety and displacement, Dunn vividly captures her protagonists’ attempts to cope with the turbulence of their lives. There are plenty of treasures on offer, even if the whole is less than the sum of its parts. (Oct.)