I can remember when reading short stories was such a popular pastime, numerous magazines and journals featuring short prose pieces hit the newsstands every week. Despite their low cover price, these publications sold in such quantities, they were able to pay handsome royalties to authors.

Alas, those days have gone. But I still like to write and read short stories. I agree that it is more difficult to get involved in a short story than a novel. A novel has obvious advantages of setting and characterization that short prose cannot usually supply.

A notable exception to this rule, of course, is a collection of inter-related stories in which the same characters ply their various opinions and eccentricities in the same setting. And yet even more powerful and engrossing is a collection in which each incident allows the continuing characters to develop, and to view the world in a new light.

This is the case with "Mexican Autumn". Not only is each story complete in itself, but each incident develops the characters and has a role in changing their outlook and/or their philosophy on life.

Such a series of stories, of course, should be read in sequence, like a novel. True, "Mexican Autumn" is a book than can be dipped into at random, but it is more effective when read page by page from cover to cover. Each story, complete in itself, not only makes a satisfying point of closure, but also provides an indelible place mark when the book is picked up later for further reading.