FICTION

. . . AND DREAMS ARE DREAMS by Vassilis Vassilikos (Four Walls Eight Windows: $18.95; 272 pp.) A bear appears in downtown Athens. A small newspaper based on people’s dreams creates huge ramifications. A woman literally gives birth to money during moments of “liberation.” These are just a few of the events that occur in “. . . and dreams are dreams,” Greek writer Vassilis Vassilikos’ latest collection of short stories. Vassilikos, author of 120 books, writes with a distant flatness that can be irritating at times. Rather than being crafted, his stories sort of blur by like a spooky landscape seen from the inside of a moving car. Is 120 books simply too much for a single person to have written? The answer is not clear, but judging from “. . . and dreams are dreams” it might be wiser to concentrate one’s energy on, say, the first 95.