A collection that loves you back

Edited by Carla Spataro, Christine Weiser, et al.

Phila. Stories Inc.

194 pp. $11.95

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Reviewed by Susan Balée

Forget New York and Washington - Philadelphia is definitely the city of writerly love. Every season brings us readers and reviewers another anthology of fine fiction and poetry from the region. This season, it's

The Best of Philadelphia Stories,

a collection culled from a colorful little magazine offered for free in coffee shops and bakeries all over town since 2004.

The tales within the quarterly's pages are sensual, savage, and funny - not unlike this city itself. Take the opening story, by Terry Mergenthal, "Kevin's Funerals": When I was riding the bus over here, there was a girl sitting across the aisle from me. She was my age, which is thirty-one, or maybe she was eighteen, I'm not sure. The point is, she was reading the May Cosmo and crying. Well, I've read that issue several times and there is nothing in there to make you sad, so I knew it had to be something else, like the death of a puppy or a brain tumor or maybe a bad breakup. I got up and sat next to her. . . .

"Your ex-boyfriend sends his love. . . ."

The girl got off at the next stop, but not before whispering [an epithet], which only confirms that I was right about the boyfriend.

Other stories told by narrators deluding themselves include one by a woman trying to end her relationship with a caddish Philly restaurant owner, another woman trying to end her relationship with a former rocker and current heroin addict, and a lesbian art student trying to end her relationship with a randy fellow student.

Yeah, there's a theme here, but it extends beyond lovelorn chick-lit. There are some seriously weird male breakups, too, like that of Richard III, who's lived into the present day and works in a paint store - at least, until he gets fired by a recently promoted rival. "Richard knows he's beaten. He rises, makes his way to the door, then stops when a thought occurs. Unlike most former kings of England, Richard of Gloucester is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. . . . 'Wait a minute, George,' Richard says. 'You can't just fire me like that. You have to have provable cause for the union.' "

Then there's a curious tale called "Small Animals," whose odd and diminutive narrator works in a mutant pet shop and is trying to recover from being dumped by his giantess girlfriend, Jesse. He remembers: "The first time I saw her, I thought she looked like a horse. Not in a bad way. It was her strong jaw line, large teeth, and the sudden urge to ride her to my apartment." That story, for all its humor and inventiveness, gallops off into a surreal, unsatisfying ending. But most of the tales here fulfill, and some are so strong, I could imagine them in Best American Short Stories.

My favorite is "Wonderful Girl," by Aimee LaBrie. In it, a young woman is trying to both comfort her widowed mother and get free of her: "Finally, Evie explains she really has to get back to work. Really. She has to leave. Soon. Now if possible. She imagines dropping her mother off at the neighbor's door with a note pinned to her blouse, 'Please take care of me,' and speeding off into the night, like someone released from a prison sentence." Not surprisingly, Evie hardly knows what to do when she finally meets a guy she likes, but her fumbling attempts are both funny and touching.

The poetry contained herein is less stellar than the prose, and appears like something of an afterthought near the end of the fiction collection, but it will make the time pass on SEPTA rides. Overall, The Best of Philadelphia Stories lives up to its name. This fine anthology from a fine literary magazine offers a lot of bang for a very few bucks. After all, this is a great town for literary writers - and readers.