Fiction

There’s an illustration of a treadmill on the cover of Rob Benvie’s latest novel, Maintenance. It works, and not just because the book features several exercise sequences: a post-conjugal violence workout, a teen’s weightlifting sesh, tennis champs sweating it up on the courts, and even some allusion to a lapsed yoga habit.

Our narrator is Hester Warnock, aged 56. She is cynical, pragmatic, unyielding, and a bit of a ball-buster.

More than merely “not linked,” the stories in Abray’s book demonstrate noteworthy range. They examine family, romantic relationships, childhood, loss, and mourning among other things and do so using diverse voices, points of view, and formal treatments.

Near the beginning of Rain Falls Like Mercy, a Wyoming ranch owner tells a reporter what’s what: “You want to write about the West, you have to know the truth about this country. Take away the yarns that stretch the truth, and all you have left is the East with better scenery.”

In an episode from the third season of Mad Men, the main character – a man calling himself Don Draper – experiences his greatest nightmare when his real name and backstory come to light. His wife (who makes the discovery) is appalled: “You’ve been lying to me every day,” she says.