MOSES SUPPOSES by Ellen Currie (Scribner:...

MOSES SUPPOSES by Ellen Currie (Scribner: $10; 219 pp.). The characters in Currie’s short stories often seem to be operating in the farther reaches of left field: In “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” a new mother allows a succession of eccentric relatives to traipse her hospital room, airing their complaints and grievances. The couple in the title story who attempt to resolve their marital tensions and the precocious, unhappy girl in “Tib’s Eve” recall characters in J. D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories”; what sets Currie’s work apart is her unexpected use of language.