LOVE LIFE

by Bobbie Ann Mason (Harper & Row: $16.95; 208 pp.) “These stories work like parables, small in scale and very wise, tales wistfully told by a masterful stylist whose voice rises purely from the heart of the country.”

--Judith Freeman

LIVES ON THE BOUNDARY

The Struggles and Achievements

of America’s Underprepared

by Mike Rose (The Free Press : $22.95; 254 pp.) “ ‘Lives’ is a mirror to the many lacking perfect grammar and spelling, who may see their dreams that ‘education held the power to equalize things’ translated into reality after all.”--Barbara Neder