These short stories are written within the shadow of Ambrose Bierce. who said, "The free wing of the short story writer] enables him to mount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain; and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination, imagination and imagination. " Incorporating stories as disparate in locale as Beirut and New York, and characters from every conceivable place in their lives, these are indeed stories of our time.