In countless little ways, even an ordinary person on a lackluster day is actually quite fascinating. A Common Person and Other Stories, the third illuminating collection of short fiction from R.M. Kinder, puts the mundane lives and irrational fears of regular folks at center stage: a young man who plots to save a neglected dog; a lonely single mother desperate to connect with her distant daughter; an older couple who wind up stuck in a cave during a tornado.
In these 17 stories, the characters' lives feel dreary yet somehow astonishing, described with the same dreamlike detail and withering nostalgia that might accompany tales of a long-lost friend. In many cases the characters aren't particularly striking or even likable, but their simple heroism and fateful interactions are often uncomfortably familiar. One example is "Small Courtesies," which places a Midwestern couple at a science fiction and fantasy conference. Here, an outlandish facet of humanity intrigues and unnerves the nondescript pair--but the costumed attendees insist they're not that strange. "A gnomish man in green velvet looked up at the doorman and said in a low, soft voice, 'We're not freaks. During the year we're just normal people with normal jobs. This is our holiday. Our chance to be different.' " In "Little Garden," a college student's paralyzing phobia of snakes seems like excellent fodder for pranks--until one friend takes it too far. The outcome suggests that even common people spend their lives lingering on the precipice of either greatness or tragedy. --Angela Lutz, freelance reviewer