MEN AND CARTOONS

This anthology of nine stories, variously dealing with relationships, memories, masculinity, and superheroes, is offbeat, weirdly Zen, and surprisingly satisfying. The opener, "The Vision," read by David Aaron Baker, is set at a neigh-borhood beer bash where the guests play a disturbing parlor game during which superhero fantasies come to the surface. "Access Fantasy" is a mini-sci-fi thriller about a world that exists only in a traffic jam, while another hidden realm exists beyond a veil. Comedienne Sandra Bernhard, the only female narrator on this collection, renders the story in a disappointingly flat style. By contrast, "The Glasses," a slice-of-life featuring an altercation at a Brooklyn optician's shop, is read with lively and credible style by Danny Hoch. The author reads two stories in the collection, including "Super Goat Man," which follows a young academic over two decades of his acquaintance with a third-rate superhero. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 04/ JAN 05]