Short stories that are long on imagination

Loory’s sparse, unadorned prose may seem at odds with the fantastical subject matter - think Lydia Davis meets H.P. Lovecraft - but this restraint allows his big ideas to flourish without distraction. Though he clearly revels in conjuring up curveballs, “Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day’’ is not just an exercise in unfettered surrealism. These stories are full of wit, humor, and heart, at times koan-like in their deceptive simplicity and focus.

Loory has a knack for twisted love stories. The protagonist of “The Duck’’ becomes infatuated with a rock. His fellow ducks make light of this unusual situation, but ultimately lend their support because after all, Loory writes, “ducks are all brothers when it comes right down to it.’’ In the epic “UFO: A Love Story,’’ two young lovers are torn apart when the boy’s determination to convince his town that the pair had seen a flying saucer runs amok. Simple pranks evolve into an elaborate, all-consuming hoax that sees the boy staging a full-scale invasion of his town in an effort to win his girl back. Another story finds a house and the nearby ocean pining for one another, desperate to be together and to overcome the one thing that stands between them - a cliff.

These sweet, off-kilter tales are balanced by others that trade in subtle horror, where blind curiosity has dreadful consequences. Loory’s oblique style is at its best here. More than anything, what he chooses not to reveal in his stories has the most impact, leaving readers to fill the gaps with terrors from their own imaginations.