In novels like In a Perfect World and The Life Before Her Eyes, the poet Laura Kasischke explores how scenes of idyllic, quiet suburban life can disintegrate in a blink of the eye because of unforeseen circumstances. If a Stranger Approaches You, Kasischke's first collection of short fiction, works in much the same vein. Kasischke offers vignettes of lives unfinished and secrets that turn friends into foes: the snooping discovery of a child's deep, dark secret ("Mona"); a husband coming to terms with impending divorce and the estrangement of his perceived soul mate ("Melody"); the sweetness and joy in taking one's wheelchair-bound grandmother out for a final hurrah ("Joyride"). In "Somebody's Mistress, Somebody's Wife," a mistress and her lover face a jealous wife's rage, and the final outcome is so bizarre and unfathomable it feels ripped from the headlines of reality TV.
Kasischke's characters are so absorbed in their own thoughts and lives that when the twists to their stories finally come, they have the potency of a slap in the face or a cold stab to the heart. These stories stir up a subtle discomfort that continues to fester, until all one is left with are semblances of the familiar bleeding into dread and the strange. Therein lies this award-winning poet's power--to jolt her readers from the contentment of blissful mediocrity into the here and now. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant