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Dictation

By Quinn Fitzpatrick, Special to the Rocky

Published April 10, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Dictation

* Fiction. By Cynthia Ozick. Houghton Mifflin, $24.

Grade: B+

Plot in a nutshell: This work is composed of four seemingly unrelated stories that find common ground in the certainty that self-deception has a long reach. Each embraces an offbeat premise that delves into schemes of deceit - some convoluted and some almost accidental.

In the title story Dictation, Ozick conjures up a most imaginative, complicated plot involving fictional secretaries of two famous and very real writers: Henry James and Joseph Conrad. As women of the early 1900s, neither is recognized for her talent, so they hatch a devious plan to undermine their famous employers and to mark a place in history for themselves. Their self-perceived genius fizzles to sad insignificance - the most dreaded fate of all for the two.

In At Fumicaro, Frank Castle, another self-indulgent character, travels to Italy for "conferences of a virtuous nature" and winds up marrying a simple village chambermaid.

He pretends to himself and others that he is rescuing Viviana, who is destined to live a harsh peasant's life. But instead of being a savior, he ends up paying a prolonged personal penance for his not-so-charitable actions.

Each story is a sacrilege to some goodness, a violation of decency to humankind.

Sample of prose: Frank Castle works to convince himself of his good intentions with this thought: "Therefore he would marry Viviana . . . It was his obeisance . . . Scores of poor young women all over Italy . . . were in her position. Her tragedy was commonplace. She was a noisy aria in an eternal opera."

Pros: Ozick understands human nature well and her stories are remarkable in their originality. Her gift is in imagining the different consequences self-deception might bring and to whom. She begins each venture with a subtle comedic note and finishes with the calamitous fallout.

Cons: Each story borders on eccentric. Thus, the plot twists sometimes stray too far from the main action.

Final word: The distractions in each story make it challenging to concentrate on the author's message. While she eventually reaches insightful conclusions, a reader's focus might have wavered before each grand finale.