cover image Wherever That Great Heart May Be

Wherever That Great Heart May Be

W. D. Wetherell, W. D. Wetgherell. University Press of New England, $21.95 (196pp) ISBN 978-0-87451-721-7

Wetherell's novels (The Wisest Man in America) and stories often combine a love of nature and of the conventional outdoor activities of boyhood with a darker and more mythic, almost magic-realist, sensibility. This collection of short fiction (his third, which follows Hyannis Boat and Other Stories) features several such tales among its nine, all of which display the concentrated power of his writing. In ""The Snow,"" for instance, as a small family living in a rural Montana cabin find themselves at the mercy of a seemingly endless snow storm, Wetherell presents a view of nature that's simultaneously beautiful, mysterious, terrifying and symbolic. He achieves a similar effect in ""Those Who Cross,"" in which a young boy finds himself cast in the role of ferryman for a silent procession of ghostly figures; and yet again in ""Natale's Hat,"" in which a storm at sea is apparently quelled by a man's quixotic sacrifice of his new leather hat. In story after story, Wetherell addresses major thematic and symbolic concerns without losing sight of details of character and action. His often surprising offerings read like fables, brought to life through an assured and original touch. (Mar.)