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Wittgenstein says, in the Investigations: "What *we* do is return words from their metaphysical to their everyday use." You think through a lot of the words in that sentence before you think about the "we"; it is possible that, if limning of special genius must be provided, the special genius of Steven Millhauser is to think "we" first, and more powerfully, than any other writer that I've ever seen. In the new stories, there is the "we" of the communities witnessing "The Slap" or "The Invasion from Outer Space," which pick up on the kind of groupfeeling that we recognize from older stories like "The Knife Thrower," and then in the title novella, a masterpiece of thinking through the "we" in these old stories in relation to an "I". As one would either know or expect, the old stories are great too, and "Cat 'n' Mouse" remains in strong contention for my favorite story of all time.