For British author William Boyd, the phrase “short story” is an oxymoron. Although he uses fewer words in the story than in the average novel, the words he has chosen are much longer and more complicated.

This means when reading Boyd’s “Fascination” — a new collection of 14 of the author’s short stories — be prepared to spend some time thinking if you want to have any hope of figuring out what the stories are really about.

The first part of figuring out any story is looking at the overriding theme. The subjects in Boyd’s short stories vary some, but several main themes continually arise in the tales.

One theme is opportunities lost and dreams unfulfilled. To Boyd’s credit, sometimes he’s able to present it in a manner that’s not entirely depressing. It’s easy to relate to the protagonist of “Beulah Berlin, an A-Z” when she speaks of the value of vague ambitions. She says that vague ambitions, like the desire to learn Spanish or travel abroad, represent a potential life you could have led.

Everyone has ambitions like this. In Boyd’s world, a desire to learn to cook may mean you were, in reality, meant to be a world-class chef in another version of your life instead of a chemical engineer.

Another overriding theme of the stories in “Fascination” is cynicism in regard to love. Almost every story contains someone cheating on someone else — think of these stories as anti-Valentine’s Day stories.

Edward, the only recurring character in “Fascination,” cheats on his girlfriend before proposing to her in “Adult Video.” He later screws up an interview as a freelance journalist in the titular story “Fascination” when he hits on the interview subject, a young woman half his age.

The presentation and the style of writing changes from story to story. There are a few linear stories, such as “Varengeville,” but Boyd likes to play with the format of most of the stories in the book.

Some are presented in a journal format. “Adult Video” goes back and forth like a video being rewound and fast-forwarded, jumping around a great deal. In “Beulah Berlin, an A-Z,” Beulah attempts to categorize her life using the alphabet, beginning each section with the next letter of the alphabet.

Some of these different formats work better than others.

Often it just feels like Boyd is trying too hard to be innovative. It takes a large amount of effort on the part of the reader to stay connected to the main thread of the story.

Boyd uses great descriptive words, which helps give the stories depth, but these same words aid in the confusion at times. Sometimes less is more, and Boyd forgets that idea on a regular basis.

Boyd’s history in the film industry — he’s had 12 screenplays filmed — shines through in numerous stories: Several of the stories involve a film or the film industry in one way or another.

For example, “Notebook No. 9” tells the account of a film director who has fallen in love with the lead actress in his latest film. Oliver, the boy keeping the secret of his mother’s adultery in “Varengeville,” has a father who is an English film director. Details like this help reveal the imprint of the author within the stories.

One hopes the cynical view of love isn’t as personal for the author, or else you can bet that he was the kid who never got any cards on Valentine’s Day.

Boyd offers up some interesting reads that leave you thinking long afterward. Just don’t expect to leave these stories feeling happy, because that is one emotion in short supply for the dysfunctional characters in “Fascination.”