There's a sense of mystery in "Gloria Bell." Our heroine listens to her deranged upstairs neighbor. She tries to get help for the neighbor. In Gloria's solitude, there's a sense that the neighbor's despair might become "infectious." (Misery loves company.) At one point, the deranged neighbor seems to accost Gloria; he leaves a strange bag on her doormat. The contents of the bag are never revealed to us--and I love that. Maybe the contents are a mystery to Gloria herself. Life's randomness, life's weirdness, is nicely "captured" here. -There's a theme concerning cycles and circles. Holland Taylor appears and lectures Gloria: "You can't know how quickly life goes by." Gloria: "Yes, Mom. You tell me that every ten years." We later see Gloria drunkenly flying around on a kind of playground tilt-a-whirl. She is at point A, and leaves, and returns to point A, again and again and again. ("Yes, Mom. You te...