Cities: you either love them, hate them, or have a love-hate relationship with them, and the twenty-nine stories in this entertaining anthology constitute versions of life in the metropolis as varied as the stalls in any self-respecting street market. Some, like Graham Swift's "Seraglio" and Neil Jordan's "Last Rites", explore the now almost traditional urban themes of alienation and despair, though from extremely unorthodox angles; others, such as Jess Mowry's "Crusader Rabbit" and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "The Woman Who Came at Six O'Clock", spring out of their locality like weeds out of concrete. The city theme seems tangential, to say the least, to Salman Rushdie's "Free Radio" or Irvine Welsh's "Disnae Matter" - does Disneyland count as a city? - while John Updike's "The City" and John Cheever's "Reunion" are just plain urban brilliant; but then you turn a page and get something totally unexpected, Rose Tremain's "The Stack", say, or Don Delillo's "The Black and White Ball". Just like in any great city, you never know what's around the next corner.
