Gregory D. Williams

You don't have to have grown up playing baseball or be a physician to love this collection. It's great to sit down with if you only have a little time on your lunch hour, or you could read the whole thing in a lazy Sunday afternoon. I especially enjoyed the two stories of youth, one reminiscent of 'The Wonder Years' and the other with a darker vibe. The triumphs, travails (and temptations) of doctors dominate the middle group of stories, while the concluding stories focus on old age, loss and closure. My least favorite story, 'The Rainbow Trout,' may well be most people's favorite. By refraining from telling us what to think or feel, and instead showing us what the characters think, feel, and do, Williams allows us to enter into their moral world and reflect upon our own.… (más)

--ARC provided thanks to Grand Canyon Press and LibraryThing.--

Blurbs do the collection a disservice, suggesting a male-centric vanity that does not happen. The stories are very human, very personal, and quite tightly focused in familiar, slice-of-life scenarios; while each is presented via a male perspective character, that is certainly not the limit of their scope. Maturity, morality, and mortality are the guiding themes throughout, and Williams does a superb job of making clear that a human life is a work in progress at all stages of the game. The female characters also reflect Williams' deep respect for the women and girls in his life.

While I might rate this collection a bit lower because the stories don't happen in places or situations that overlap with my life or interests, I am really taken by Williams' command of prose. The stories are told with a clear economy, an intuitive understanding of how to express the most with little frosting. Not all the stories hit the same, of course, so while "Three Strides to Thirty" felt like a throwaway to me and I'll not reread it, "Rounding the Bases" and "Section" were simply brilliant. I am sad at the passing of this fellow I'd never met, since I'd love to have future work of his to look forward to.

A final word about the text itself merits mention since I frequently criticize small presses: Grand Canyon Press has done a fine job with the proofing, editing, and layout of this slim volume. It was a joy to hold and read, and they should be proud.… (más)

I have never been so happy to be proven wrong about my initial assumptions about a book. After guessing this collection might be nothing but a vanity project for a rich doctor, I was very happy to discover writing that generated aching nostalgia and perfectly recreated another place and time.

This fascinating collection of short stories (and several prose poems) contains some of the most immersive writing I have ever experienced. Dr. Williams takes the reader through three phases of life: childhood, early adulthood, and late adulthood. Most of the stories mostly take place over just a few hours, though others take days or even months. The childhood stories were particularly moving and transported me to 1960s/70s Arizona; I felt as though I were watching the story unfold in reality rather than reading about it.

Interestingly, most of the books are about death in some fashion, which I was not expecting. Rather than a cheap way to add gravitas, however, death feels natural - although confusing in the childhood stories - and its exploration provides depth.

Overall, I was highly impressed with Dr. Williams' stories and look forward to reading more.… (más)