FICTION

THE GEOGRAPHICAL CURE by Michael Parker (Scribners: $20; 287 pp.) Whether it is the son of a bail bondsman, a frustrated Marxist, or two runaway teen-agers, all the characters in Michael Parker’s collection of stories are offbeat and very real. Set mostly in the South, these are emotionally isolated people struggling in different ways to make sense of the strange events that dictate their lives. The strongest work here is “Golden Hour,” a sad, funny and beautifully written novella narrated by three radically different people. One of the best qualities of this piece is the way truly bizarre things keep happening--yet the plot never feels self-conscious like so much “quirky” writing. Instead, the events come so naturally from the character’s needs and relationships that it seems impossible for anything else to have transpired. Here is Nancy McFadden, a lonely school administrator, right before she commits an extreme act: “I will not die here, a tiny voice whispered. I listened as it repeated itself again and again until it became the very rhythm of one foot in front of the other, a way out.” Every story in “The Geographical Cure” has its own vibrant heartbeat. This is a writer to watch.