Keeble (Yellowfish
; Broken Ground
), a veteran writer of the modern West, links the nine stories in this Prairie Schooner Book Prize–winning collection through recurring characters; names appear in one story's background and become central to the next. The first story, "The Chasm," introduces Jim and Diane Blood, who are trying to build a ranch house during a tough eastern Washington winter. In their attempts to forge relationships with their new neighbors, acclimate to the land and maintain their marriage, they set the stage for many of the book's continuing themes. "Chickens" visits Jim's early life in a small Saskatchewan town, where he witnesses the townspeople's cruel treatment of a German immigrant. The Bloods reappear again in "Freeing the Apes," the unsettling novella that ends the book. Other stories include "Zeta's House," a short but intense picture of a house in mourning, and "I Could Love You (if I Wanted)," which follows an unemployed single mother as she struggles to raise her two daughters while her mother grows increasingly ill. Like the setting, this book is rich and rewarding, but doesn't give itself over easily. (Nov.)
