Gates has also published short stories over the years, landing them in “The Best American Stories” and “The O. Henry Prize Stories.” He’s now published his first collection, “The Wonders of the Invisible World” (258 pages. Knopf. $23). Gates’s characters tend to be hypersmart and alienated. Many are gradually giving up on the fantasy that they’ll ever get it together. “World” is being praised as a bracing, insightful collection. “Gates wipes the rosy tint off readers’ glasses,” writes New York Magazine, “promising only to help them see.”
