Whatever the techniques—traditional or experimental—Barnes's work is concerned with ways of being reconciled to life's random misfortunes. In the stories of Spillway there is often an emotional "spillway" that rechannelizes feelings of helplessness and isolation. Its specific form may not be pleasurable, yet still it exists as an alternative to the completely isolated personality. For some characters who are whirled about by stimuli they never quite understand, the spillway is passivity or acquiescence, while for others it is a private fantasy, endless travel, or psychological regression. Whatever the case, the suffering begins with detachment from origins.

At the very least, the protagonists of the stories are perennial travelers, and usually they are emigrants or expatriates. Madame von Bartmann in "Aller et Retour" was born in Russia but lives in Paris while her husband, a German, raises their daughter in Nice. She returns "home" when her husband...