Bartheleme is the only experimental american author whose stories i've actually enjoyed reading. Unlike Ronald Suckenick et al, Bartheleme retains a story-teller's skill while still playing incredible formal tricks with the idioms of the short story. This collection is by turns dense and frustrating, then almost giddy with invention, taking flight like a perfect drunken improvised anecdote. My favourites include 'The Great Hug' and 'The Balloon', both of which are the kind of stories that David Foster Wallace wishes he could write.