176 pp. A bump to one corner of book. Minor rumpling to dj in various places. Translated, with an introduction by Suzanne Jill Levine. 'The Argentinian Adolfo Bioy Casares, writes Levine, ''is an urbane comedian, a parodist who turns fantasy and science fiction inside out to explore the banality of scientific, intellecual, and especially erotic pretensions. . . . Behind his post-Kafka, pre-Woody Allen sense of nonsense is a metaphysical vision, particularly of life's brevity and the slippery terrain of love.' His selected stories, chosen from various collections published from the mid-'50s to the late '80s, is aptly divided into two parts, ''The Labyrinth of Love'' and ''Adverse Miracles,'' ample frames for the author's amatory tales and wry magical realism. It is a fine introduction to one of Latin America's leading modern writers--and a choice retrospective of the master storyteller who won the 1990 Cervantes Prize, Spain's most prestigious leterary award, for his lifetime work.'