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Migration Patterns

Joan Hinkemeyer, Special to the Rocky

Published November 9, 2007 at midnight

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• Fiction.

Gary Schanbacher. Fulcrum, $14.95

Grade: A

Plot in a nutshell: The isolated man seeking refuge in nature is a familiar figure in American literature, dating as far back as Cooper's Natty Bumppo and continuing with Twain's Huck Finn and even Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The theme is most prevalent in literature about the American West. Coloradan Schanbacher continues the tradition in his fine debut story collection. While his characters seek escape in nature, they also search for a sense of home as they physically and emotionally engage in their migrations.

Nash, central to Storms, A Garden in Drought and A Father's Peace, is a member of an itinerant road crew that follows natural disasters, trimming trees, repairing roofs and cheating vulnerable customers before moving on. When violence erupts after a customer becomes suspicious, he flees Kentucky and ultimately finds himself "nearer to his past" in Colorado, where his elderly father, firmly rooted in place, stubbornly clings to his annual gardening rituals. As the stories unfold, we witness the burdens of grief carried by each man, and we're saddened by their mute inability to articulate them.

In another story, young Clayton catches crabs to sell at the local coastal market. When he witnesses his first love, the much-younger wife of the market owner, being abused by her husband, Clayton flees to the Colorado mountains. His silent non-life as a short-order cook at a small-town cafe mirrors the town's non- life as it waits in limbo for the giant dam that will obliterate it. Yet, like Nash, Clayton ultimately finds his soul's home.

In other stories, a younger brother flees from home when his brother betrays his trust, and an aging flower child wreaks vengeance on someone who jumps the line at a supermarket.

Sample of prose: "He wanted badly to remind his brother of his promise, but he could not speak. So long alone, the words would not come."

Cons: None

Pros: Schanbacher's unflinching prose is also lyrical. With the accuracy of a laser, it lays bare the deepest emotions of the human heart.

Final word: The author's sincere sympathy for his troubled characters endows these polished stories with deep appeal.