I did finish reading Vikram Chandra's Love and Longing in Bombay at some point this morning. Good short stories. (Long short stories -- five of them made up a substantial book.) I'm trying to pay attention to what makes one South Asian writer (telling a South Asian story) distinct from another. Trying to figure out how to not be generic. It's not so easy.
One non-generic (also non-South-Asian) writer is Richard Butner -- I'm most of the way through his chapbook from Small Beer, Horses Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories. I'm still sorry that the New York editors wouldn't let me include one of his stories in Aqua Erotica -- it was a good story. This is a good chapbook, with a clear and inimitable style. I like the way his mind works, at least as evidenced in these pieces. His vision of the future is more than a little frightening, but I find it pleasing nonetheless, in its coherence and vibrance.