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When people speak of the work of Wallace Stegner, it is not this book to which they refer. They are more likely nodding toward Angle of Repose, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Or The Spectator Bird, which won the National Book Award. Or even the semi-autobiographical Crossing to Safety, the last of his published novels. However, this slip of a story, written in 1937 for submission in a competition, is where the Stegner canon starts and serves as the kindest of introductions to an esteemed and deservedly-honored lion of American literature.

In retrospect it seems so utterly predestined for me to have come across this volume at a local library sale during a rare visit with relatives in the Midwest. Stegner could not have planned it any better, nor wished for a more propitious frame of mind than mine under such circumstances. His tale of an Iowa farming couple who take in a coltish and naïve younger sister is just the sort of thing we discuss around our early afternoon table, as the plate of pastries is traded for crackers and cheese and the odd uncle or cousin speeds through on his halftime race to refuel. Tongues would cluck, as they often do when third (attractive) parties are inserted into the dynamic of a marriage. Sins predicted; retributions mused. This author's ground, in terms of my receptivity, had been more than adequately prepared.

What I was not prepared for, though, was the confidence of this voice. First novels (or novellas, as this could be considered) are generally either overwritten or fit-and-start affairs. The roads of expression are still under construction; the hand that writes and the mind that envisions are still in the process of making their acquaintance. Not so Mr. Stegner. There's an assurance here, a serene comprehension, a precision of intent, that flat-out portends greatness. Remembering Laughter is a solid, quiet little story about lapses in judgment and the legacies that ensue, told by a man with a grasp of humanity one imagines subsequent novels could do little to improve.

A fortunate choice on my part, no question.