This is a fine piece of literary magic. Dabney does an excellent job with character development, scene descriptions, and mood settings, throughout these 5 shorts.

Very profound, somewhat morbid with explicit sexuality, round out his unique story lines. He brings to life words I had no idea existed, and his ability to jump into the future and from character to character is uncany. A great NYC subway read! Loose Ends One Good Turn 47 The Egg Lady 115 Bed and Breakfast 167 No Visible Means of Support 187

Dabney Stuart, among our finest poets over the course of nearly a dozen collections, here continues his fine work as a fiction writer. Harkening back to his previous collection of stories, SWEET LUCY WINE, this new book includes a novella and three stories continuing the tale of the Random family and people in the family orbit.

When I hear that fiction is poetic, I assume that means it is written in fancy prose and contains little narrative action. Stuart's fiction is poetic in all the best senses--highly compressed, vivid in scene and description, exquisitely written--but with a concurrent eye toward the deep exploration of character. A reader leaves THE WAY TO COBBS CREEK having come to know Mark Random, his brother, his parents and grandparents, and their wildly commingled histories in the same way that a beloved neighbor is known, through stories woven together over time, intimate in detail, rich in resonance.

The title novella will remind you of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, as indeed the whole collection will, because of the web woven by fishing throughout the tale, because of the familial complexity, and because of the stylish prose. But this is family done Southern, a turn more lavish and gothic, and the result is even more powerful emotionally.

Stuart is an acclaimed poet,so one was expecting something really special from this story collection. Sad to say, the book doesn't live up to Stuart's reputation. The stories essentially build up to nothing, no surprises or revelations, no delight or inventiveness. The title story and "Mr. Mann" are perhaps best. Lucy is an interesting character, one who seems to inhabit a world of her own. Too bad she, nor the boy Mark, who figures in the majority of stories, has been more fully developed.

Dabney Stuart seems to bewilder hilself with these confusing, self-obsessed poems, many of which seem to belong to the genre of talking cure. The poet is clearly troubled by family matters and tries to control his unsettled understanding of his role and perspectives with a radical verse that evades any organizing categorization or description. Whether in Australia or New Mexico, this poet looks so hard at what's in him (he even seeks God there) that he forgets to register the phenomenal world. Perhaps these poems presage a new mode for the veteran of the poetry wars and feuds, but it would be hard to see what that mode might be. The word play is sluggish and the attempts at humor are poor. Fortunately, Stuart refuses to release the vestiges of old-time hard-won linguistic grace, but overall, the book suggests that one of the fixtures of American poetry is trying to learn from the flavor-of-the-month young poets. It's a doomed errand.