NEW STORIES FROM ABBOTT

All Things, All at Once: New and Selected Stories from W.W. Norton is Lee K. Abbott’s sixth (or maybe seventh) book of short stories. I’ve been hooked on Abbott since reading his collection, Strangers in Paradise. I picked up a copy at a library used book sale and devoured the whole thing in a few days. It was the cover that drew me in. It features a painting of a southern N.M. landscape. In the forefront, is a cow skull leaning against a sign for "Deming, N.M." At the time, I was on a mission to read all the Rocky Mountain region fiction writers, especially crafters of fine stories. People like Arizona’s Ron Carlson, one-time Montanan Richard Ford, ex-corporate guy (like me) Rick DeMarinis, Tobias Wolff (who grew up Utah and Washington), Raymond Carver, and anyone else who claimed affiliation with the West’s big square states. Abbott’s stories were about Vietnam vets, mechanics, ex-jocks, bad husbands, and other regular folks. He could inhabit them like a soul, and convincingly give voice to their inner struggles. That’s a real gift – and makes for compelling storytelling. I just read a new story by Abbott, "Gravity," in the fall 2005 issue of The Georgia Review. The lede socks you in the eye: "They grab her -- Tanya, my fourteen-year-old daughter -- early in the afternoon from the sidewalk outside the north entrance to J. C. Penney’s at the Mimbres Valley Mall." Abbott divides his time between N.M. and a teaching job at Ohio State University.