The Circles I Move in — Diane Lefer

These sharp-edged, uncompromising, often comic stories take on the daunting complexities of our much afflicted and logic-resistant world. From the multiracial streets of New York City to Mexican villages caught up in social change, here are people of our times in pursuit of human connection. Lefer's unusual range of characters includes a pornographer who wishes to comfort his disillusioned feminist wife; a veteran of the Mexican Revolution who watches a young teacher and her rival - a leftist guerrilla - compete to push their Mixe Indian village into modernity; and a young boy at a family gathering who listens to his relatives reminisce about popular television commercials. Lefer's contemporary characters blunder toward a vision, breaking them free from the limitations of imperfect societies and the too tight borders of their own lives.