The Importance of High Places (First Edition)

Stories deal with the search for meaning of a classical pianist, a widow, a truck driver, the owners of a tourist stop, and an old priest

The four short stories in this debut collection delight, while the one novella disappoints, often for the same reasons. While a certain deftly handled opaqueness adds layers to the stories, the same quality obfuscates the meaning of the novella. In one story a man who has had scant pleasure in life buys a faded dinosaur theme park and works at restoring it, with little success. Other stories tell of an aging man who subtly courts a Polish widow by bringing her his curtains every week to launder, and of an opera-singing quarry worker whose wife has recently left him and who cares for his elderly aunt and does nonsensical things, like purchasing a pair of eels from a disreputable-looking couple in a bar. These quirky actions add up to very individual portraits of the characters and their conditions, but in the novella--the tale of a priest living in Hawaii--the episodes go on longer while measuring up to less. About half of the novella consists of an old priest's confessional letter to his successor, and the priest's self-conscious writing is much less gripping than Higgins's own delicate prose.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fascinating tales of spiritual transcendence in generally humble surroundings--in this first story collection (and one novella) by a Polish-American children's author. Eccentric composer Deiter Jahnke, hunkered down in his Catskill home, has prepared himself for the dreaded deer-hunting season's opening day with ``No Hunting'' signs, loud music to frighten the deer out of harm's way, and neon-orange clothing to protect his own hide. But actual death--a hunter's accidental shooting of his young son and subsequentsuicide--shocks Deiter into an entirely different realm, and, in fact, in ``Opening Day,'' enables him to compose the great work he had nearly given up. Similar transcendent moments occur in ``Dinosaurs,'' (a depressed and aging man finds spiritual relief in a neglected theme park); in ``The Importance of High Places In a Flat Town,'' (a young quarry- worker struggles to believe he'll someday escape the confines of circumstance); and in ``Kahuna,'' the thoughtful, accomplished novella (a guilt-ridden Catholic priest revisits the site in Hawaii where an old adversary died--and takes the reader along on a captivating spiritual journey). Higgins's concerns center on issues of guilt and absolution, spiritual release, confrontation with one's own mortality, and the deeper meaning behind life's ordinary gestures. She renders the experiences of her characters--many of them old, often Polish, and usually Catholic--with a refreshingly masterful hand. A memorable experience, and a writer to watch. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The four short stories and novella that make up this debut collection are set against nature at its most alluring. Presented as objects of passion, nature and place both become inextricably bound with character. In "Opening Day," Deiter Jahnke engages in a futile campaign to preserve his land and sanity during the hunting season. Further north, in "Dinosaurs," Tommy V. feels compelled to purchase a neglected tourist stop because it offers a rich promise of hope. In the soulful novella, "Kahuna," a retired priest fears for his life as he contemplates the influence he's had over the children of a native spiritualist. The title story, the collection's most delightful, concerns Frankie Stepanski, a truck driver and natural-born tenor who would die if he couldn't sing from the rooftops. All these stories share a romantic reverence for nature reminiscent of an earlier era. Highly recommended.
- Janet Wilson Reit, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.