A Vietnam veteran revisits memories of his Uncle Roy, a "sporting" man who taught him gamblers' games, and strains to see with an adult's perception the meaning in a child's recollection. The hero of "The Way You Know in Dreams" is just one of the characters struggling to make sense of his dreams and his memories, as though the most important lessons of life are those slightly beyond our reach.

In stories that range from sparkling satire to lyrical recollections of childhood, Weaver draws us into the inner lives of characters grappling with the illusions and delusions of modern life, from the ironies of academia and the writing life to the insidious grasping of a materialistic society.

Parker attempts to give order to his past with only memories to guide him in "Fearing What Dreams." A middle-aged man longs to reexperience his brief time with a childhood friend, a pathological liar of absurd proportions, in the hilarious "Lie-A-Fornia." A man trying to cope with the shocking reality of violence, in "Modern History," finds himself compelled to return to a horror in his past - looking for answers and failing again.

Weaver turns his cunning wit on the literary world in "Poet-In-Residence," in which Darcy, house poet for the Acme Corporation, struggles to compose a villanelle honoring the employee of the month. And another writer, Batteiger, mired in a monumental writer's block and desperately seeking inspiration, meets his Muse - an overweight apparition in need of a bath.

Ultimately, these tales celebrate life by offering the promise of fulfillment, through friendship, family, art. The result is a poignant view of both the treacheries and possibilities of modern society Marked by polished prose and mordant humor, The Way We Know in Dreams is a masterful achievement by one of our most accomplished contemporary writers.