do not know enough about the current state of American letters to venture an educated opinion about where Mr. Owen Parry stands in comparison to his colleagues who are writing fiction today, but this slim volume of poetic prose is such good stuff that any author would be proud to have written it. I'm a writer too, so I'm cursed to know good writing when I see it, but I also know that no matter how hard I might try, I'll never be up to Mr. Parry's level. Well, that puts me into very good company with many so-called best-selling scribblers. These simple stories, told by a master, wonderfully evoke the joy of humanity at its best, and yet Mr. Parry writes with a steel pen: Reading these stories is like coming inside from the cold to a room with a blazing fire -- they warm you through and through and you're grateful for the respite they bring your soul, but your ears sting painfully from the howling wind outside. Ladies and gentlemen, not many ca...