["The Apathetic Bookie Joint" is] a collection of those stories the author wishes most to preserve, and a hitherto-unpublished Hollywood novella, "Triplicate." The first of these stories appeared in The New Yorker in 1938, and the last in Commentary in 1975. They begin, as did Mr. Fuchs himself, in Williamsburg. Brooklyn…. And they culminate in affluent Beverly Hills…. (p. 9)

Mr. Fuchs seems to appear as himself, or an only thinly disguised character, in all these stories, the best of which are the early ones, deeply rooted in Williamsburg. These stories are prescient, laconic and poignant. They speak of sour barbers, forlorn bookies, bankrupt butchers and foolish fat girls driven to pretending to their boyfriends that they're going to vacation in Maine, with a rich and desirable Mr. Charming, when in fact they're only going to spin out yet another unfulfilling day at a married sister's bungalow in Rockaway.

The girls...