It was just about three years ago that I thoroughly enjoyed reading Thomas Williams' The Hair of Harold Roux, which won the National Book Award in 1975. At the time I had a strong desire to read more by Thomas Williams, so this collection of his short stories was the next step. Unfortunately, the outcome was not nearly as positive this time. The stories in Leah, New Hampshire all take place in or around the town of Leah, New Hampshire. While the stories are not connected in any other way, the sharing of this locale allows them to complement one another. This relationship of the stories creates a richer experience for the reader, but does not solve the underlying problem, the stories themselves. I found many of the stories engaging at some point only to feel let down or uninvolved by the end. Instead of letting the story speak for itself, I found Mr. Williams was spending the last few pages of a story explaining his message or trying to add some important insight, instead of allowing the story, the events and the characters to speak for themselves. While the story "Goose Pond" was better than the rest, it's location at the beginning of the collection just built up what were unreasonable expectations and clearly showed what was missing in the other stories. I would not recommend this collection even for short story lovers like myself. ( )