If there is such a thing as a perfect short story than the author Maile Meloy has accomplished this in "Travis, B.", the first of eleven in "Both Ways". It is beautifully crafted and paced; stark, honest and realistic, closing silently in the snow under the moonlight evoking a heart murmur. Her deceptively simple tales are always finely measured with great sensitivity, leaving one to ponder over the need for compromise at times and placing an emphasis on the reality of moral ambiguity. Her impressive writing style and gentle panache demonstrate again and again that often when painting a literary tableau, less said is sometimes far richer fare. Although it is tempting to read at one sitting "Both Ways", each story has enough substance for a discussion with other readers of the book or is worth taking a pause for some reflective thinking of one's own. They can also be "interpreted" according to one's nature and I translated a few of them here for my benefit without spoilers for other readers: "Red from Green" became "Sold down the River" in my mind; "Lovely Rita" into "Nothing left to Lose"; "Spy vs. Spy" as "Abel on Skid Snow"; "Two-Step" as "The Echoes of Narcissus", "The Girlfriend" became "A Father Lost", and the humorous "Liliana" as "Grandson in the Doghouse" - one hears of such anecdotes quite often in daily life. In her amusing "Agustín", Miss Meloy writes a wicked fairy tale; tongue-in-cheek. As for "O Tannenbaum", my take on it was: "The Christmas Gift Exchange". While her stories in this particular work take place in Montana and other parts of the U.S., the author writes equally splendid ones of Americans overseas as in her other masterpiece: "Half In Love". To sum it up, it is a rare find when one reads a book and wonders how the author is able possess such a literary gift. A tour de force on the part of Maile Meloy, who is unique and stands on her own.