Title:  A Dry Heat: Collected Stories

Author: Gregory D. Williams      

Genre: Literary Fiction / Short Stories

 

A Dry Heat is a compilation of nine short stories separated into three parts that roughly correspond to early adolescence, young adulthood, and middle/late- age. Threaded through them are loosely connected evolving themes and sub-texts while Williams also draws upon inspiration from his childhood in Arizona and subsequent medical career.

Indeed, the reader senses intriguing shards of buried autobiography in the collection. The stories flicker between first and third-person perspectives with each part headed by a slightly surreal yet intimate little riff on a seemingly abstract subject that develops meaning as the stories progress.

The first story set in 1968, Rounding the Bases, uses the framework of Little League as eighth grader Charlie Willingham begins to navigate unfamiliar emotions mainly due to Kelly Barratt, his best friend and self-appointed baseball coach.

Charlie’s coming-of-age trajectory is brilliantly, yet subtly explored. From short, simple sentences, viewing the world with child-like wonder to growing awareness and self-examination of his puzzling feelings, Williams has written a beautifully textured story that operates on several levels, with the enigmatic Kelly at its core.

In Who We Were at Twelve, childhood is also left behind, but in a more abrupt manner. There is an uneasy sense of foreboding enhanced by a knowing slant given to adult themes that are being viewed through the lens of a twelve-year-old boy.

As with the previous tale, Williams mines a rich seam of comfortable nostalgia before twisting the narrative to an unexpected, ambiguous conclusion.

Williams toys with reader expectations throughout the collection. Many characters are recognizable types with convincing motives but as the stories advance, he turns their desires inward, leading to some thought-provoking and unanticipated endings.

Playing Doctor showcases this narrative swerve. The contrast between the professional clinical setting and the underlying sensuousness the narrator experiences is compelling and distracts from the figurative hammer blow at the end.

Both What the Doctor Didn’t Know and Section are powerful stories unfolding complicated lives and unpleasant realities hidden from the general view. Williams’ prose is unashamedly writerly, sharply detailed, and insightful, yet aching with pathos and emotional vulnerability.

Part III brings what initially appears to be a sprinkling of comic energy with the first tale, Comps. This brushstroke of humor is borne from the main protagonist, George’s middle-aged grumbling which taps nicely into cliché, thinly disguising his loneliness and disillusionment.

But a deeper complexity emerges prompted by his conversation with a stranger, Cathie, which, with its frisson of sexual charge, looks to be heading in only one direction. Again, Williams swiftly wrongfoots the reader but it could be leveled that this ending, full of metaphor and hope as it is, could have been more purposeful.

Baggage Claim is a sublime piece of writing, demonstrating Williams’ mastery of weighted dialogue and use of physical expression. What appears to be a regular, albeit frustrated conversation, is loaded with resentment and fear, yet also softly vibrates with the middle-aged couple’s profound, enduring love for each other.

Williams is a captivating, unpredictable writer, which is ultimately demonstrated in his penultimate story, Three Strides to Home. Whimsical and poignant, it’s a page-turner, leaving the reader with as many questions as answers.

Occasionally, the stories seem a touch similar in their differences but Williams ends the collection with the wonderfully allegorical Rainbow Trout, his first foray into writing.

A Dry Heat is a multi-layered, deeply human, and emotionally forensic collection of stories that proves hard to put down. Williams was an intrinsically talented author with a gift for nuance and observation, producing stories that veer between harsh reality and poetic magic, which consequently makes for compulsive reading.

 

 

This Editorial Review was written by the Book Review Directory staff. To receive a similarly honest, professional review for one of your own books, click here.