good stories - but collection of short ones - some continuance of characters

Indeholder "Forest Winter", "No Memory Comes", "Gravity", "The Water was Dark and it went forever down", "Nilsam's Friend", "Minimum of Two", "Distant Lands", "Laps", "Bay of Angels", "Strong One", "Holding", "More", "Death belongs to the dead, his father told him, and sadness to the sad", "Blood and Water".

"Forest Winter" handler om ???
"No Memory Comes" handler om ???
"Gravity" handler om ???
"The Water was Dark and it went forever down" handler om ???
"Nilsam's Friend" handler om ???
"Minimum of Two" handler om ???
"Distant Lands" handler om ???
"Laps" handler om ???
"Bay of Angels" handler om ???
"Strong One" handler om ???
"Holding" handler om ???
"More" handler om ???
"Death belongs to the dead, his father told him, and sadness to the sad" handler om ???
"Blood and Water" handler om ???

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Minimum of Two was an ordinary paperback that I spent an ungodly amount of money on, as it is out of print. I feel like it needs its own safety deposit box. However, once I began I was not disappointed, it was flawless. It is similar to his collection of short stories, The Turning. But this selection is a bit different. All but two of the shorts deal with the same family, and as always he shows differing viewpoints of different events and times. It starts with a young boy dealing with his parents divorce, then the other stories are from the standpoint of the father at different points in his life: dating, newlywed, out of work, dealing with his father's illness, etc. They aren't in any chronological order, so it takes reading them all to see the complete story of the family. I like that there are gaps left unexplained so you can ponder what actually happened.

It's never a happily ever after story with Winton, and this too has it's sadness and poignancy. What I liked though was how, as I already know how fast life can change, as an individual I can only look back and forward in my own life. In this set of stories, I could see his life, backwards and forwards, and see what the main character couldn't see: all his options and choices and how they turned out. Great book!!!! ( )