SOURCE: A review of Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner, in English Journal, Vol. 84, No. 1, January, 1995, pp. 114-15.

In this review the critic admires Stegner's skill at presenting single moments in people's lives poetically and powerfully.

When that delicious and all-too-uncommon occasion arises for me to read something for myself, nothing feels better than making just the right choice—something with texture, substance, and richness. And I have learned that the best recommendations tend to come from writers whose works I admire. So when I read a tribute to Wallace Stegner in the book What Are People For? by Wendell Berry (1990) I decided that Stegner was an author I needed to explore.

Berry praised Stegner, his former teacher, as also being the mentor of—among other literary stars—Ernest Gaines, Ken Kesey, Robert Stone, Tillie Olson, and Raymond Carver. I thought that I should read more of the teacher...