There are 27 stories in Black Tickets; sixteen are very short, a page and half or less. These short pieces are interesting and flashy, sometimes overwrought and sometimes successful. Altogether, they don't satisfy as much as the longer stories in this collection. Any of them might be marvelous read aloud: already strong in voice, compressed in language, their associations would become richer with pauses and inflection. The best of them ("Stripper," "Cheers," "Slave," "Solo Dance") have a sense of being spoken wholly all in one breath, and have a feeling of desperate necessity….

The longer stories show more range, take bigger risks, and mostly succeed at what they try. The best have at their center a young woman who makes contact, or misses it, with one of her parents….

The strength in these stories is that even narrative gives way to necessity: honesty gets more time than forced technique...