The action of "Crawling At Night" takes place during a jumbled, alcohol-saturated 48 hours in Lower Manhattan; the story is a dramatic multicharacter collision of personality, culture and circumstance that is as much about emotion and memory as it is about events. The main characters are Ito, an aged, lonely Japanese sushi chef with a complex inner life that he has no language to articulate to those around him, and Mariane, an aging, alcoholic sexpot waitress who would prefer that her inner life remain as unarticulated as possible, even to herself. Although she is no longer pretty, Ito has a crush on Mariane because her raw femaleness reminds him of a young Chinese prostitute he used to love, and because his sense of her hardship rouses him emotionally.

She also attracts Yoshi, the owner of the restaurant, although much more simply -- during a moment of drunken flirtation after closing, he lunges at her, mistaking her protests for a sexy game until it is too late. Both feel shamed by the incident, each blames the other, and Mariane's days at the restaurant are thenceforth numbered. Not knowing any of this, Ito works up the nerve to ask Mariane to dinner at his house, an event for which he prepares with painstaking care only to be stood up because his date has lapsed into a drunken stupor in her bath. The next night at work, Yoshi fires Mariane before Ito can confront her, and the novel's events are set in motion; Mariane is off in pursuit of oblivion and Ito is off in pursuit of Mariane.

As the narrative follows them, the story blends past and present, changing point of view with poignant effects, widening and narrowing its scope, deepening its texture with vivid secondary characters. Among the most engaging of these characters are Ling Yu, a tough, elegant young hooker Ito meets in a Chinese club, and Ton, her semiretarded Vietnamese boyfriend, an innocent soul who sweeps the floor in the restaurant where Ling's father first pimped her out. Ms. Power has a gift for quick characterizations that layer oppositional qualities with subtlety and intensity; her portrayal of the prematurely experienced young girl's seduction of Ton is lovely, gentle and deliciously crude. Ton is a great Elvis fan, and so Ling cleverly evokes the King:

"You know what Elvis really liked?" His boom box played "Jailhouse Rock."

"No, what." His eyes lit up.

"He liked to be naked with women. He liked to touch them, and they touched him."

"H-He did? Are you sure?"

"Oh, sure. Everybody knows this. You want to try?"

We went to the broom closet. I took off my dress with blue flowers. I only had red silk underwear on, no bra, because sometimes Mr. Chang liked me on Fridays. I peeled off his clothes and he was grunting slowly. His item was flat against his stomach, it was so hard.

"What did Elvis do?" He was breathing hard.

"Well, he liked to do this."

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"