All Things, All at Once

Lee K. Abbott is one of those American short story writers whose name almost no reader recognizes and whose work has been quietly carrying serious weight in the form for forty years. All Things, All at Once is the career-spanning selection that came out late in his life and that should be the entry point for anyone who has not read him.

Abbott's stories are mostly set in his native New Mexico and Ohio, mostly involve men trying to figure out how badly they have damaged their marriages or how to talk to their grown children, and mostly do not resolve in the way the form usually rewards. His prose is the achievement. He writes long sentences that double back on themselves the way thinking actually does. The stories accumulate weight rather than build to it.

The collection is large. It is also one of the cleanest argument for the American short story as a serious literary form. The early stories from the 80s are the strongest. The later ones earn their slowness.

Five stars. Recommended to anyone who cares about the form. Abbott deserved a wider audience and still does.