The World is Neither Stacked for Nor Against You is a book of disparate parts, a sort of Frankenstein monster of a collection. And indeed, there is a monster story, as well as a ghost story, an angel story, a mystical religious story, and a mystical secular story.

Some of the work is experimental, some of it is outlandish, and some of it is as simple and comforting as a home-baked pie. Its stories are made of gypsum, bituminous coal, red bricks and whimsy.

They are equal parts crassitude and chimera. The final one, "Publisher," the book's longest, concerns a man working for a vanity press who discovers "the real thing," a novel he is convinced will blast a hole in the complacency of modern literature.

About "Publisher," John Grisham said, "It's not only funny and clever, it reminded me of the first 80 pages of Sophie's Choice. Great work.

" The stories have previously appeared in The Pinch, Orchid, Ghoti, Gargoyle and other fine periodicals, as well as story collections published by a handful of sincere, frabjous, small presses. .