In looking over these stories, I find there are two things I can say about them. Most are long. They might best be thought of as novels in miniature. And more than a few seem to take place out on the road. "Last Respects" is about a middle-aged couple driving from the Midwest to the far west and coming to a halt in Oklahoma, where the husband finds himself bathed in tears as he recalls a college-aged sweetheart who came from that state and died there at the age of nineteen. The wife decides they can travel no farther until they have found the sweetheart's grave, and, playing detective, she directs her husband from town to town. (The entire story, "Last Respects," can be accessed below). "A Life of Crime" only takes to the road in the final pages, but with these words: ". . .new starts, in this country at least, come at the end of long self-propelling, self-depleting, wrenching and wasting efforts. Here it never comes to you, you go to it. Here the going there is the only measure we know." Once I had thought to collect these stories under that title: Here the Going There. A few of them, especially "Casualties" and "Song and Dance," are more specifically concerned with history, which is travel of another sort, another form of going there.
"The Rio Loja Ringmaster" (story), The Paris Review, Fall 1974.
"The Rookie Season" (story), The Paris Review, Summer, 1976.
"Our Lady of the Mediterranean" (story), The Bennington Review, September, 1979.
"Age of Retirement" (story), Epoch, Winter 1979.
"For Years Without War" (story), fiction international, No. 12, 1980.
"Her Journey Westward" (story), The Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1981.
"From Pure Products," River Styx, #10, 1982.
"A Life of Crime" (story), The Paris Review, Winter 1982.
"Last Respects" (story), Harper's Magazine, February 1983. (To access entire story see below.)
"Monuments" (story), The New Yorker, October 29, 1990.
"A Sweet and Sunny Life" (story), Columbia Review, 1993.
“Casualties,” (story), Epoch, 1998,vol. 47, nos. 2 & 3.
“Song and Dance,” (story), Epoch, 2005, vol. 54, no 3.
"The Rio Loja Ringmaster" (story), The Paris Review, Fall 1974.
"The Rookie Season" (story), The Paris Review, Summer, 1976.
"Our Lady of the Mediterranean" (story), The Bennington Review, September, 1979.
"Age of Retirement" (story), Epoch, Winter 1979.
"For Years Without War" (story), fiction international, No. 12, 1980.
"Her Journey Westward" (story), The Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1981.
"From Pure Products," River Styx, #10, 1982.
"A Life of Crime" (story), The Paris Review, Winter 1982.
"Last Respects" (story), Harper's Magazine, February 1983. (To access entire story see below.)
"Monuments" (story), The New Yorker, October 29, 1990.
"A Sweet and Sunny Life" (story), Columbia Review, 1993.
“Casualties,” (story), Epoch, 1998,vol. 47, nos. 2 & 3.
“Song and Dance,” (story), Epoch, 2005, vol. 54, no 3.
| Last Respects |