The Man Who Went Down With His Ship

The Man Who Went Down with His Ship (1988) finds Hugh Fleetwood moving from Manhattan and Paris to winter-bound London, from Tuscany and Sardinia to Mexico and Egypt. Yet wherever his characters roam, their fate awaits them like the proverbial appointment in Samarra. In the title story, poet Alfred Albers attempts to confront with honesty an event from his past that has always haunted him, only to learn anew that no good deed goes unpunished. In ''The Nature of Angels'' Maria longs for deliverance from a life made moribund, but is finally forced to ponder exactly what kind of power would answer our prayersThis edition includes two later Fleetwood stories: ''L & I'' and ''Why Are You Wearing My Daughter''s Earrings?'' ''[Fleetwood] reaches down and stirs with venomous delight the nameless, faceless things swimming far below the level of consciousness.'' Scotsman