BOOKS

On the Cusp
uko Tsushima's Japan is a place
where women cannot find comfort.
Freed from the strictures of tradition-
al mores and of the nuclear-family struc-
ture, the women of her short stories
scrabble together the bits of their lives-
relatives, lovers, children, jobs, the past-
as a desperate attempt at fulfillment. But
in The Shooting Gallery (138 pages. Pantheon.
$7.95) all of these efforts go for nothing. In
"A Sensitive Season," a young woman,
forced to take care of her father and aban-
doned nephew, gets only a brief respite
through an affair with a construction
worker before he leaves her. In "Missing,"
a mother who was abandoned by her hus-
band long ago comes home to find that her
teenage daughter has followed in his
footsteps.
On the cusp between old and new, these
characters are caught in a sociocultural
void. Old values are no longer respected,
and new ones have failed to replace them,
but these people seem to be sucked uncon-
trollably into the spiritual vacuum that
exists. Tsushima underscores their lack of

identity by often leaving them nameless. In
"An Embrace," a man (first name un-
known) asks the narrator (full name un-
known) why she entered her short-lived
marriage. She replies, "I was determined to
get away from home. As long as I stayed
there I would always be treated like a child.
It was to get away." He observes, "Ah. I
suppose it's like that for a girl." These pow-
erful stories, stark and unrelenting as they
are, scrape away the veneer of Japanese
politesse. Underneath lies a profound crisis
which cannot be escaped and which seems
impossible to solve.
RON GIVENS
Believe It.
W hen you think about it, Robert Rip-
ley took the wimp's way out. When
he gave you his curious nuggets of
information, you could believe it or not.
Well, Cully Abrell and John Thompson
don't take the lily-livered way out. They
call their curious nuggets of information
"actual facts." Sure, the term is redundant,
but it underscores the boldness of these two
researchers, who work out of Peck, Kans.
Moses May Have Been an Apache! and Other Actual
Facts (Main Street. $6.95) contains more

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FROM THE BOOK'... ACTUAL FACTS' © 1988
than 200 actual facts, including this one:
"The world's least successful game show
was called 'Bowling for Skunk Cabbage',"
and this one: "A man can actually move 140
miles per hour, but only for about six inch-
es!" and this one: "The worst ice cream
flavor is probably 'squirrel'." No reference
shelf is complete without this invaluable
compendium.
R. G.


An education for those who can't look the other way.

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sity has a special place for
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potential.
Most of our programs are
offered on a part-time and
full-time basis and combine
classroom theory with prac-
tical, hands-on experience.
Call (617) 437-2708 or write
to us at 106 Dockser Hall,

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