A few years back, we claimed that ''Hansen's descriptive expertise is

A few years back, we claimed that ''Hansen's descriptive expertise is hypnotically precise--powerful, like an injection...he packs the sensory intensity with potent story. '' A little gushing, but now we've seen this collection of occasional pieces and--we're stickin' by it. Among the fourteen collected here are a reminiscence of John Gardner (On Moral Fiction) which makes us sadder than ever that he died so tragically early; a colorful portrait of St. Ignatius Loyola; a convincing interpretation of Gerard Manley Hopkins as great poet and holy man; and other trajectories on the biblical narrative of Cain and Abel, the phenomenon of the stigmata, the epochal quality of the film Babette's Feast, the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador, and the Eucharist. Hansen's initial piece treats of writing as sacramental. Beyond all the critical acclaim he's accumulated, a powerful enough incentive to read him, we'd say.