Toward the Sun: The Collected Sports Stories of Kent Nelson

These 13 sports stores from the much-anthologized Nelson (Language in the Blood) are lit by a Carver-esque suggestiveness. Sport--primarily winter games like skiing, ice climbing and hockey, with a little golf and tennis thrown in--becomes a metaphor for struggles of the heart. The agonies of aging and strategies of human relationships are played out by way of the squash court in ""The Squash Player"" and ""Alton's Keeper,"" two of the collection's best. Each story is meticulously crafted, and the characters, drawn mostly from the Birkenstock and cableknit crowd of Colorado, are all fully realized. What disappoints here, though, is that engrossing as these short narratives often are, none feels quite finished. Rather than concluding, they merely stop in mid-stride, as if the ref forgot to tell the characters to resume play. There is usually no glorious victory, no round defeat. The characters' backstories are well established, and captivating situations emerge. But too often, just as interest builds and a climax looms, one finds oneself at the story's end. (Oct.)