Customer Reviews

Leah, New Hampshire: The Collected Stories of Thomas Williams (A Graywolf Discovery)

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The book has an introduction by John Irving. Leah is a fictional town. Thomas Williams was a longtime resident of New Hampshire. The author's introduction refers to his childhood practice of reading the Bible.

In "Goose Pond" a new widower visits Leah where he spent his youth and young married life. He kills a doe with a bow and arrow. In the next story it is observed that mothers have to be half policemen, half indentured servants. The ski instructor at the resort the mother and son end up in is past forty and over-weight. He thinks that he is too jaded to seriously pursue the mother of the story. When he gains the courage to go after the woman, Margaret, she is visited at the resort by her former husband who is particularly needy. The ski professional wonders what he has done in this world except have a pretty good time.

A teacher finds that he cannot enter the classroom. Then he destroys himself with a firearm. His obituary omits the information that he was a fairly good teacher until he tired of things. The stories are about people who survive just barely the collapse of snowforts, bad marriages, encounters with the past, disclosures of unease.

This is one of my favorite collection of short stories. If you like Hemingway's short stories and if you live or like to visit New England you will love these stories.

Thomas Williams blends intricate prose with real skill for story-telling. His accounts of Leah bring the town to life, filling it with vibrant characters and a tangible spirit of the northeastern United States.