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Millhauser provides a wonderful collection of restrained storytelling just on the edge of fantasy. He manages to make a childhood trip to the lake, a slap, the ending of a relationship, and a random disappearance fantastical. He toys with things like touch and words, until they're morphed into something of magic and unfamiliarity.

Each story isn't overwhelmed with the fantastical, but it often shows up halfway through or after, and much of the time, it has to do with feelings, intuition. It was interesting to read Millhauser's stories in succession. You notice familiar elements: melancholy, a feeling of almost-discovery that soon fades, green glass Coke bottles, porch gliders, etc. Other magic is there all the way through, as if perfectly normal - flying carpets, tangible moonlight, living snowmen. Overall, it's a great collection, restrained, exemplary, subtle, but fantasy through and through.