All of Steve Stern's effervescent stories in this collection have a common relationship, either by setting or allusion, to the whimsically dangerous North Main Street neighborhood of Pinch--a mythical Jewish area perched atop the river bluff in Memphis. Here the voice of the Lord rises up from gas burners and out of pay phones. Here aging fathers-in-law live in backyard sheds and negotiate with the Angel of Death. Here is a land in which a host of very different characters share a common tendency to ignore the usually agreed-upon bonds of reality And in their rollicking wisdom all will confirm Susan Sontag's earlier inventory of Mr. Stem's talents: "Great brio, whiplash sentences, lots of energy, and charm."