THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE: Tales and Conjurations ...

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE: Tales and Conjurations by Charles Johnson (Plume: $9.95; 169 pp.) These eerie stories by the National Book Award-winner depict metamorphoses in a South poisoned by interracial hatred. In “The Education of Mingo,” a slave owner raises an African youth in his own image, and is rewarded with a cruelly honest reflection. “Exchange Value” traces the transformation of two ghetto youths into obsessed hoarders; “China” follows the progress of a broken-down mailman as he remolds his body and spirit through the martial arts.