I have no idea why this seminal, nay iconic book has sat unread on my shelf for so many years. I took it with me when we went to our remote cabin in Maine, where there's no Internet, no phone-- no electricity, come to that. I knew we'd be spending a lot of time outdoors, so I wanted something short that I could read in brief installments before, worn out from the day's hiking, I fell asleep at night. But it rasined on the first day and, camp-bound, I went cover to cover with a brief break for lunch. The book was to my mind a triumph both of style and content, though in the case of so lyrical a writer as Momaday, that's a false distinction.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece set against the landscape of the American Southwest. 'Superb' New York Times
A young Native American, Abel has come home to New Mexico from war to find himself caught between two worlds. The first is the world of his grandfather's, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons, the harsh beauty of the land, and the ancient rites and traditions of his people. But the other world - modern, industrial America - pulls at Abel, demanding his loyalty, claiming his soul, and goading him into a destructive, compulsive cycle of depravity and despair.
Tyler Mahan Coe, son of country musician David Alan Coe, has a regular podcast by the same name. This volume is purportedly a history of the relationship, musical and otherwise, of the greatest country duet ever, Tammy Wynette and George Jones. But although Coe does trace that relation, along the way he offers acute and usually very surprising cultural commentary. Who knew, say, that pinball machines and country music, say, were interlinked early on? Who knew that Waylon Jennings was actually addicted to pinball?
From the creator of the acclaimed country music history podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones, comes the epic American saga of country music's legendary royal couple-George Jones and Tammy Wynette.
By the early 1960s nearly everybody paying attention to country music agreed that George Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. After taking honky-tonk rockers like "White Lightning" all the way up the country charts, he revealed himself to be an unmatched virtuoso on "She Thinks I Still Care," thus cementing his status as a living legend. That's where the trouble started. Only at this new level of fame did…
Ms. Egan's capacity to include eloquent and unexpected details (how did she learn so much about deep sea diving, say?) to a complex, mesmerizing, and yet entirely accessible story line made this great book stand out for me.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
The daring and magnificent novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author.
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Esquire, Vogue, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA TODAY, and Time
Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men.…
Now Look (Down East Books/Roman Littlefield), explores the ravages of addiction and a dying north country culture in my first novel in 35 years, as I am principally a poet and essayists, with sixteen collections of poetry and seven of personal essays. But this novel contains many of my own lifelong preoccupations. It is, I hope, a moving story about second chances, missed opportunities, and redemption.
Addiction has taken a bloody toll on America, from opioids and heroin to nicotine and alcohol. Each drug of choice can kill us, sometimes quickly, sometimes day by day as it melts our lives away. Now Look lasers in on the destructive grip of addiction, as one of the main characters, George, reaches the depth of alcohol dependency and is in need of recovery.
I don’t mind acknowledging that I myself was blessed to get into continuing recovery some decades ago.
