As the outlines of these stories suggest, Shaw's artistry rests upon an ability to place two characters in a deceptively ordinary setting, put them in conflict, allow them to talk at cross purposes, and send them finally in opposite directions. Such scenes work only if the narrator can quickly sketch the crucial characteristics of these colliding personalities and cast their exchange in rapid dialogue. The technique relies upon dramatic irony, with the audience realizing more implications to each speech than either the speaker or the listener. In some stories the interior monologue of the central character replaces dialogue as the main device for exposing the personalities in conflict.

Shaw does not rely on the device which O. Henry, the nineteenth century master of short fiction, popularized: the unexpected plot twist revealed in the final paragraph or sentence. Shaw's method is closer to that of...