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COLLECTED STORIES by Leslie Norris

COLLECTED STORIES

by Leslie Norris

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 1996
ISBN: 1-85411-133-7
Publisher: Dufour

Collected Stories ($19.95 paperback original; Sept. 1996; 260 pp.; 1-85411-133-7): An omnibus volume that gathers the contents of Welsh storyteller Norris's previous volumes, The Girl from Cardigan (not reviewed) and Sliding (1976), as well as some previously uncollected work. These are gentle, lyrically reflective tales of village life and adolescent awakening that do tend to shade off into sentimentality, though at their best—as in the complex ``Sliding'' and the surprisingly bleak ``Three Shots for Charlie Benson''—they record the difficult passage from boyhood to maturity with understated warmth and wit. Attractive work, if in a minor key, from a likable and estimable craftsman.