Prayers for the Dead

A new collection of short stores by the author of This Time, This Place chronicles the deceptively simple, bucolic lives of the people of Sunday's Hollow. In the tradition of Steinbeck and Faulkner, Vannatta writes with compassion and empathy for the work-weary common man. ``The Plain'' introduces the aptly named Workman family, the common thread in Sunday's Hollow. George Workman's memories of the Battle of Little Big Horn keep him up on his hill, safe from the dangers of the open plains. ``I hugged that hill like I'd hug my Momma. Up there we could see what they done to the ones that got caught on the plain . . .'' In later stories, George's son John moves his wife Lelia and children from the safety of the hill and in ``Horizon'' Lelia is confronted with John's death and the burden of moving his lifeless body. As she waits for help, a strange buzzing announces the eerie sight of the first aeroplane in Sunday's Hollow. Progress, in the form of the Harry S Truman Dam, brings the collection full circle in ``Passover,'' in which old Mary Carter leaves the hospital to find her home in Sunday's Hollow, now mostly underwater. The stories in this collection are filled with quirky characters, both funny and sad. They would be depressing or desolate in less skillful hands, but Vannatta writes poignantly about this corner of the world and inevitable changes affecting everything but human nature. (May)