SOURCE: "Afraid of Sharks, Rifles, and the Passing of Time," in The New York Times. March 14, 1996, p. C19.

Lehmann-Haupt is the New York Times's book critic. In the following review, he explores the various ways in which Dubus applies the element of fear in the stories of Dancing After Hours.

People coping with fear is the predominant theme of the 14 stories in Andre Dubus's fine new collection, Dancing After Hours, his first work of new fiction to be published since he was badly injured in a traffic accident a decade ago.

Sometimes the fear is a memory, as in two cases of veteran soldiers recalling the terror of battle. At other times the fear is anticipation of loneliness, particularly well rendered in "Sunday Morning," where a 36-year-old woman grows weary of making love to yet another man uninterested in permanence: "She saw him going home to his...