THE STORIES OF J.F. POWERS is a book to treasure. Powers died in 1999, but his reputation as perhaps the greatest comic chronicler of the 1950s Catholic Church endures. He published only five books in a career that spanned over five decades. Three of them were slim collections of short stories,all of which are included in this handsome volume. The other two were novels. The first, MORTE D'URBAN, a book I have read and reread at least four times, each time with much chuckling and great enjoyment, won the National Book Award in 1962. The second, WHEAT THAT SPRINGETH GREEN (1988), I read just a few years ago. Again,much chuckling, a pure pleasure to read.

Because he was a perfectionist, Powers worked slowly. His resulting stories were, to my mind, perfect. His subject? The Catholic Church, its clergy and religious, and its faithful members in the mid-twentieth century Midwest. In these stories his priests, nuns and parishioners are presented in thoroughly human terms, warts and all. Catholics from that era cannot help but relate. They will smirk, smile, chuckle, guffaw. The humor sneaks up on you, surprises you into laughter.

I can remember, as a child, seeing Powers' first book, PRINCE OF DARKNESS AND OTHER STORIES (1947), a slim paperback in a rack of religious books and pamphlets in the back of our church. My mother, always an avid reader, must have bought it, because I discovered it in our home bookcase my senior year of high school. One story and I was hooked. I probably didn't realize it then, but I had discovered buried treasure.

I am so pleased that NYRB has made all of Powers' stories finally available in a single volume. I had read his final collection, HOW THE FISHES LIVE (1975), but not the middle one. THE PRESENCE OF GRACE (1956). Now I have, and I will continue sampling these stories for a long time. It's the kind of book you can open anywhere, to any story. Every one is perfect, complete, a finely polished gem. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

Great, wry short stories. I find it odd that the back cover suggests Powers, together with some other authors, has "given the short story an unmistakably American cast," since that would normally suggest look at me pyrotechnics, film-like set pieces and soul searching nonsense about what it means to be an American. I would put Powers next to Flaubert's Three Tales and Trollope's Barsetshire novels, the first because perfectly written, the second because affectionately amused at the world.
Particularly great: "Keystone," "The Devil Was the Joker," "Prince of Darkness," and "Lions, Harts, Leaping Does." It's always a good sign when the longest stories in a collection are the best, I think. ( )