All the Way in Flagstaff, Arizona by Richard Bausch Summary

All the Way in Flagstaff, Arizona, is the story of a man's descent into alcoholism and the effects it has on his family. The story goes back and forth between the past, particularly one day at a family picnic, and the present, where Walter, the protagonist, is praying in a church in Flagstaff, Arizona. At the picnic, he has been drinking, and while the family has a good time, he eventually starts picking on his son William, and finally starts chasing the kids around in what he thinks is a game but is actually terrifying for them. Bausch then chronicles the year afterwards, when he gets dry for two weeks but then falls off the wagon, and his wife leaves him; finally, he is at the church...