Absent Without Leave and Other Stories - Hardcover

This collection of 10 stories, Treadway's first book-length publication, opens with the aftermath of a murder-suicide and concludes with a belated breakdown caused by childhood sexual abuse. Like most of the book's characters, the abusive father in the final tale ("Something Falls") is pitiably appealing, and he describes them all when he says that "what's in traction is my daughter's soul." Alcoholics who drive away loving spouses, parents who fail adored children, an unwed teenage alcoholic mother who just needs a hug--with a couple of exceptions, these well-meaning people barely survive life's complexities. The stories focus on their current distress, not what led up to it. In the title work, for instance, Francie (whose wedding is featured in an earlier tale) follows in her alcoholic father's stumbling footsteps, but no explanation for her behavior is given. Favoring first-person narratives, Treadway conveys many different voices, both male and female, deftly projecting humor as well as pathos. Her skillful ventriloquism, however, ultimately proves limiting: like Francie, too many of these unreflective characters slip away from us, absent without leave.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This powerful, unforgettable collection of ten short stories will mesmerize the reader. The subject matter is frank, often brutal, and always real. In "Something Falls," a daughter's mental breakdown is traced to earlier abuse by her father. In "And Give You Peace," two sisters meet to comfort each other one year after their father brutally murdered their youngest sister and then committed suicide. Several of the stories are about the same family. In "Commencement," an alcoholic father consoles his daughter after she fails to graduate from high school. The same father, now divorced, returns in "Wedded" for the marriage of his oldest daughter. In the title story, this father and daughter meet to share the pain of selling their old family home. These intriguing stories are highly recommended.
- Stephanie Furtsch, New Rochelle
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.