Not Where I Started from, (Paperback)

Publishers Weekly,Many of Wheeler's protagonists in this hypnotic debut collection of 10 stories are Americans in exotic cultures, seeking love or spiritual enlightenment. In ``Improving My Average,'' a lonely rich American girl raised in Colombia attempts to rescue her servant from an unscrupulous fiance, only to discover the abyss between her own privileged life and theirs. In ``Manikarnika,'' a computer graduate student on leave in India learns that her abusive father has committed suicide and finds an emotional anchor in an unpretentious guru. Wheeler, a one-time Buddhist nun in Burma who is now an O. Henry and Pushcart Award-winning author based in Massachusetts, does not spin gauzy New Agey scenarios but rather writes smart, tough-minded tales full of verve, wit, irony and a deft human touch. Her nervy women break out of self-made traps, whether it's a Kansas dishwasher who runs away from her domineering, older husband (``Judgment''), a transplanted New Yorker who is down-and-out in Miami's Little Havana (``Mr. Peanut''), or a neurotic dancer who can't get over her married ex-lover in Paris (``My Most Recent, Perfect Knight''). A highly original, delightful writer, Wheeler is on a par with Paul Theroux or Doris Lessing in her serendipitous explorations of cultural collisions. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved,Publishers Weekly,Publishers Weekly,Many of Wheeler's protagonists in this hypnotic debut collection of 10 stories are Americans in exotic cultures, seeking love or spiritual enlightenment. In ``Improving My Average,'' a lonely rich American girl raised in Colombia attempts to rescue her servant from an unscrupulous fiance, only to discover the abyss between her own privileged life and theirs. In ``Manikarnika,'' a computer graduate student on leave in India learns that her abusive father has committed suicide and finds an emotional anchor in an unpretentious guru. Wheeler, a one-time Buddhist nun in Burma who is now an O. Henry and Pushcart Award-winning author based in Massachusetts, does not spin gauzy New Agey scenarios but rather writes smart, tough-minded tales full of verve, wit, irony and a deft human touch. Her nervy women break out of self-made traps, whether it's a Kansas dishwasher who runs away from her domineering, older husband (``Judgment''), a transplanted New Yorker who is down-and-out in Miami's Little Havana (``Mr. Peanut''), or a neurotic dancer who can't get over her married ex-lover in Paris (``My Most Recent, Perfect Knight''). A highly original, delightful writer, Wheeler is on a par with Paul Theroux or Doris Lessing in her serendipitous explorations of cultural collisions. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved