In his second collection of short stories, Darin Cozzens returns to his fictional Balford, a little Wyoming town whose mostly Mormon inhabitants illustrate, over the last sixty years, the pains and ironies of what one character in the title story calls normal mortality. Bride-to-be Fonda Penroy struggles to reconcile judgment and compassion when a more popular cousin’s hastily arranged wedding upstages her own. A washtub at a farm auction is catalyst for the motives and emotions of half a dozen different characters. Sitting at the bedside of her dying twin brother, eighty-four-year-old Ivy Teague must confess a long-held and most unlikely grudge. And on his way to tell a farm couple that their livelihood is no longer a paying proposition, banker Frett Maxwell Jr. can’t help but question his dead father’s philosophy regarding the gamble of life. All together, whatever the predicament of their central figures, these eight stories evoke the poignancy of regret, forgiveness, and, ultimately, redemption. This gathering of eight stories is first rate. As much a novel as a story collection, these fictions are united by milieu, by the gritty reality of rural farming life, and by the characters who appear in more than one story. More than anything else, they are united by Mormonism as culture and faith.
-Gordon Weaver, winner of two Pushcart Prizes and the O. Henry Award The narratives are as sturdy as sawhorses, yet they are animated by quirky, earnest, genuine personalities. The Last Blessing of J. Guyman LeGrand is a rare and invaluable accomplishment. -Fred Chappell, novelist and poet laureate of North Carolina from 1997 to 2002 The stories fulfill two requirements of realistic fiction beautifully: to teach and entertain. Cozzens writes skillful prose, never wastes a word, holds the reader’s attention with every line. The collection is a very welcome addition to Mormon fiction. -Douglas Thayer, author of Hooligan and The Tree House
There is humor in Cozzens’s work, but more than anything there is yearning, heartbreak, and the tantalizing hope for connection and redemption. This collection deserves a readership as wide as the Wyoming sky. -Angela Hallstrom, author of the novel Bound on Earth and editor of Dispensation: Latter-Day Fiction
