Defying Gravity has graciously helped me to learn how to put pictures with posts (I'm still getting used to computers) and so I offer her many thanks.
Huxley's short stories strike much the same tone as the earlier mentioned Chrome Yellow. They mostly about affluent people who simultaneously want to be accepted by their peers because of their artistic or intellectual qualities, but also feel disgust for society and the world at large. They know the world is hollow, but want to live in it anyway. It's certainly a common feeling and easy to identify with.
The stories have a strange way to being mostly lighthearted affairs, and then suddenly and without warning offering deadly serious insights into death or loneliness. There are at least half a dozen in the volume that are top shelf and deserve to be read and remembered more than they are. "Little Archimedes" is a standout, among others.
As far as I can tell, this collection is the only way to get ahold of Huxley's stories, so there are no alternatives with which I can compare it. Unfortunately there is no introduction or commentary on the stories, but given the available options I consider this book to have been a good purchase.
Also recently completely was another Koontz novel, The Key to Midnight. Originally published in 1979 under a pen name, Koontz re-wrote it and it was re-issued in the 1990s under his name. It is better than the last couple I have read by him, and I get the feeling that his newer work is a real improvement over his early stuff, so I think the re-write probably did the book a lot of good. It's a sort international mystery spy story, involving Russian KGB operatives and hypnosis and false memories, etc, etc. Pretty common Koontzian elements. It mostly takes place in Japan and features a ridiculous love story as well. It's completely unremarkable, which is actually about the nicest thing I've said about a Koontz book. A more or less straight ahead thriller, but hard to see how someone would get famous writing books like this.
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