Surreal, vivid, and often strangely lovely, the 29 short pieces and vignettes in Ducornet’s collection are unconventional and inventive. The book is boldly illustrated with pen-and-ink style cartoons and sketches whose hidden details, snarled curving lines, and snide humor somewhat recall the “underground comix” style and perfectly complement the stories.

Themes of entrapment – to religion, to husbands, to overbearing friends, to high society, to academia and the art world – recur throughout, along with repression of wildness, creativity, and an authentic sense of self. In Ducornet’s corner of the world, the devil is in the details, and the details make you cry and laugh in turns. With whimsical vocabulary and imaginative word-play, Ducornet’s postmodernist short works aren’t for everyone, but will delight those who revel in such off-center views of the world.

Stand-outs of the collection include the title piece, a short work about two mis-matched women friends who go out shopping in search of the one marvelous thing; “Wild Child,” a narrative in the voice of a feral child who pretends to accept civilization but secretly longs to run wild again and hunt; and “Green Air,” in which a young wife finds herself the latest captive of a Bluebeard-like husband. ( )