Searching for Nausicaa

This book deals primarily with the difficulties that men (and even extraterrestrials) encounter wrestling with possibility (or impossibility) in the nebulous realm of love. Although the hapless anti-heroes of these tales often sabotage the very thing they seek by rejecting "mere" reality, in one tale the protagonist goes much further, refusing even the love of Jesus Christ, the saintly Dorothy Day, and his own beloved dead mother. However, for those seeking a glimmer of light, an antidote to the prevailing ironic gloom, the final tale, "A Touch of Grace," presents a brief, awkward glimpse of true love, beyond all hope, in the unlikely coupling of sexagenarians. This collection has something for both sodden realists and hopeless romantics.