"Wind," a piece long enough to be termed a novella, supplies both the title and the dominant image of this collection. After suffering the emotional turbulence of her father's increasing insanity and her parents' divorce, the protagonist survives an actual tornado. Set partly in eastern Tennessee, partly in upstate New York, and partly on the road in between, all six stories focus on female characters who are disappointed and displaced. In "There She Was," an adolescent girl experiences racial prejudice and learns that evil "lurks at the corners of everybody's life." "Obscene Callers" portrays the grotesque birthday celebration of a 40-year-old woman. Wilson's matter-of-fact style allows her troubled characters to display dignity along with intense pain.

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