All these fictions are about failure, misapprehension, defeat, loss, guilt and breakdown, told with a delightful irony and sense of humor. In one, the myth of King Kong is dismembered by an author who finds his subject too large for his talent. In another, a fat man hears the jealous hallucinations of his friend in disbelief, only to discover that his friend has told the truth with a vengeance. An ambassador to "Imperial Place" finds a country on the verge of collapse, overrun by wild children. "The Misogynist" is an author, tired of his wife, who writes a strange story about a machismo-talking cock and its meek owner, a story which begins a strange itching in his on crotch, the occasion for another Rope Dance. These and other strangenesses may be found in this rare and rarefied collection, rendered in a powerful and careful prose.