The Earth and the Sky

Wesselmann's debut collection contains richly varied stories with a wide range of cultural knowledge. Whether the setting is Taipei, Florence, the Andean foothills, or Tornado Alley in Texas and Oklahoma, Wesselmann creates characters who bridle against what is expected of them despite the pull of a social or cultural imperative - and despite their own inclination to embrace it. In "Shinkansen" a Japanese engineer boards a bullet train for Kyoto, where he is to meet the young woman his parents have chosen for him to marry. En route, he contemplates the marvel of the train, reviews his life in Tokyo with the Westernized Japanese woman he loves, and comes to a decision about leading his own life. In "Core Puncher" a woman who has lost a child to cancer races across Oklahoma and Texas searching for tornadoes that rake the flat and arid land. She meets up with another storm-chasing loner with reasons of his own to risk his life in following the cold fronts and dry lines they both hope will spawn a twister. In the title story an American family vacations in Italy at the home of two motherless young women. Elisabetta, having lived all her life in Quieso, is intrigued with her foreign guests, spying on their activities and searching their quarters for clues about their lives. When Jenny, the five-year-old American girl, is missing, Elisabetta finds her, earns the frantic gratitude of the child's parents, and begins to understand her own motivations.