The St. Veronica Gig StoriesPaperback, 1 July 2000

Set in the immigrant streets and tenements of Brooklyn, Jack Pulaski's stories sparkle with incident, character, memory, and a touch of the surreal. In Religious Instruction, a widowed scripture teacher channels her passion into a retelling of the primal stories of the bible that transixes her adolescent students: When she marries again we will not hear these stories, not the same way. Music Story sketches a chilling portrait of urban ethnic territoriality, while in Father of the Bride, a young Jew pursues the skeptical, profane and eccentric Carlos, seeking his daughter's hand.

Get the book and read it. And then shower copies on everyone you know who still enjoys moving his or her eyes from left to right.--Sven Birkerts.

Jack Pulaski has his turf, and the talent to work it.--Andrei Codrescu