With five collections published since 1965, Elspeth Davie is one of the best short-fiction writers in Scotland. Her interest in the "hidden, day-to-day experience" in "what's happening to people just below this hectic surface" is the common denominator of all her writings. Her metaphysical quest for a whole that will reunify the gaps of modern society is brilliantly conveyed through her idiosyncratic style; her blend of detailed realism with touches of impressionism; and her semisurrealistic symbolist style. Her achievement of an extremely controlled, precise form that conceals the effort of making a whole from the chaos, and of making a unity from opposite codes--along with her ability to select words pregnant with deeper meaning--gives birth to a compact world which is seemingly a universe of its own, yet one directly linked with the panorama of contemporary literature. Unfortunately, the abstract character of her narrative form has probably prevented some...