FICTION

A GLIMPSE OF SCARLET by Roxana Robinson (Harper Collins: $18.95; 200 pp.) This collection of short stories opens with a graceful treatment of people who reach out to understand each other although they come from different worlds. The narrator grew up in a family that sent CARE packages to a family in Poland. The Polish boy grows up, comes to America and moves in to paint her house. She imagines her life through his eyes and is embarrassed at its frivolity. The title story involves a woman who catches a glimpse of scarlet as lovers close a door. She knows adultery when she sees it, and she gets caught up in their passion. But when she glimpses a suspicious scene involving her own husband, her reaction is different. Robinson examines the lives of people who inhabit the rarefied world of old money, fine houses, private schools and smooth surfaces. She lifts the surfaces and explores the depths in stories that are both delightful and disconcerting.