Although I prefer Peter Cameron's novels (Leap Year, The Weekend, Andorra, The City of Your Final Destination), he first made a name for himself in the mid-1980s with wistful short stories. Half the contents of this, his first book, were published in the _New Yorker_. Somewhat offbeat children and young adults of both sex experience the oddness of adults and the complicated relations among the adults they observe who are dying or have survived divorce, or are thinking about getting married. Not much happens and (as with many contemporary literary stories) the stories tend to stop rather than be wrapped up. Life and its uncertainties will go on for the somewhat perplexed, somewhat perplexing and never-fulfilled characters.

Almost every story has an observation or dialogue that makes me laugh out loud. My favorites are two stories about young New Yorkers visiting relatives in Maine with a possible marriage partner ("Fast Forward" and "Nuptials and Heathens," the latter with the best absurd line in the book) and one about a young woman who has to pass calculus to begin Columbia MBA program in the fall ("Fear of Math"), though I was not sorry to have read any of the fourteen stories.

I wanted more from the secondary characters in Andorra. And I wanted more character from the main character. It was a good read, but hardly a masterful novel. It's been a year since I read the book, the details have faded. However I remember enjoying the picture he painted of a country most people in the world don't know about. I know it was a novel though, so I didn't expect fact. By the end I was drawn into his mystery, cheering for his character and hoping that everything would turn out right in the end. I still contend that the secondary characters needed to be more robust, and the mystery needed to be less subtle.

This is a stunning book, and one I don't really recognize in most of the editorial or customer reviews posted here. By purposefully misnaming the book Andorra, the author seems to be telling us that the plot details are secondary...instead the focus is on is the attempts of the main character to maintain strict control over his new life, measuring everything and everyone around him. We slowly come to understand why he has done this, as we see the simplest of encounters cause his life to spin out of control. It's a testament to Cameron's writing that this doesn't quickly get tiring; instead the result is striking, with wonderful insights coming from each encounter. The writing is nimble and spare. A wonderful book...I found myself wanting to reread it as soon as I had finished it.

This elegant novel has evaded (and therefore disapointed)some readers but those who read it closely -- and enjoy its details -- will be richly rewarded. Peter Cameron's characters in this novel are at once immensely human and mysterious. Cameron's Andorra is beautiful and mysterious. Read the bood: allow yourself to leave your country for awhile and luxuriate in Peter Cameron's. It's worth the trip.