Spinning Sun, Grinning Moon: Novellas by Max Evans
1995; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1995.0124
ISSN1948-7142
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
Resumo326 Western American Literature This is a book that many will be able to curl up with and enjoy on a wet, rainy evening, and mayeven want to keep on their shelves forfuture reference and enjoyment. GEORGE H. TWENEY Seattle, "Washington New Trails: 23 Original Stories ofthe West. Edited byjohnJakes and Martin H. Greenberg. (New York: Doubleday, 1994. 306 pages, $22.95.) An interesting collection ofshort stories, New Trails: 23 OriginalStoriesofthe Westis a product of the Western Writers ofAmerica (WWA). Founded in 1952, WWAhas traditionallyfostered the writing ofshort stories, novels, and non-fiction set in the Old West. This present anthology, according to co-editorJohn Jakes, is something of a departure from that past. The NewWest (1900-present) provides the setting for anumber ofstrong tales. R. C. House’s “We’ll Kill the Old Red RoosterWhen She Comes”is the present-dayaccount of two retiredArmyveterans and an aging prostitute who strike it rich. The surprise ending proves both credible and endearing. One of the better stories is Sally Zanjani’s “Making History,” in which a young female graduate student seeks the “truth”about Old West saloon girls. Women writing about women account for a considerable number of pages. Good stories include Marianne Willman’s “Wildfire,” a bodice-ripper about an 1860s ranch woman and a Comanche warrior who find happiness together. Lenore Carroll’s quiet “Reunion”focuses on Kate, a retired madam who loves dying gunfighter Doc Holliday. In terms of racial minorities, an African-American Army sergeant major is the true hero ofElmore Leonard’s“Hurrah for Capt. Early,”an ironic homecoming tale setin the afterglow of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Experimental fiction iswell-represented by‘The Death(s) ofBillythe Kid,”acarefully constructed tale with multiple narrators, by Arthur Winfield Knight. Entertaining tales of a more traditional bent include editorJohn Jakes’ “Manitow and Ironhand,”a tribute to German pulp Western writer Karl May. Elmer Kelton’s ‘The Burial of Letty Strayhorn”highlights a rancher’s efforts to bury his wife on her parents’ homestead. Trouble is somebody else owns the land now. For true traditionalists, New Trailsincludes Ed Gorman’s “Long Ride Back,”a short, violent tale offrontierjustice. Asurprise ending, ofsorts, adds anice touch and proves in keeping with the anthology’s emphasis on new approaches to the western story. All told, New Trailsproves worthwhile reading. JAMES B. HEMESATH Adams State College SpinningSun, GrinningMoon:Novellas. ByMax Evans. (SantaFe, New Mexico: Red Crane Books, 1995. 338 pages, $19.95.) Max Evans is perhaps best known as the author of TheRounders, the basis of a film which starred Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford. He was also a good friend of Sam Reviews 327 Peckinpaugh, and even appeared in Peckinpaugh’s minor classic, The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Recently Evans received some attention for Bluefeather Fellini and its sequel, BluefeatherFellini in the Sacred Realm, also tied to films as the hero’s last name suggests. Evans, curiously, describes the Bluefeather setas “the world’slongest novella”(891 pages in the paperback edition), but his new collection of seven “novellas”is perhaps a better introduction to his work. These tales evoke a West that reflects that of the working cowboys of The Rounders and the unique perspective of Peckinpaugh. A Chicano miner is driven by his life-long obsession withfinding gold in amountain near his home; aboyisinitiated into life on the trail by a cowboy drifter whose first impulse is always to work a con; a mysterious faith healer (another con-man?) violently disrupts and permanently changes the lives of a rancher and hiswife. In “Xavier’sFolly”aChicano plumberin Taos dreams ofsponsoring an appearance bya Russian ballerina, and “Old Bum”is a tall tale about a hard-drinking and apparently immortal hound. Evans’s humor and his comic exaggerations come through best in first-person tales like “Old Bum”and “MyPardner,”where the boy and his deceptive partner range across the Texas panhandle. Such western landscape is also an important presence in most of the stories, especiallyin “One-Eyed Sky,”where Evansvividlyconveys the range countryas he tells his storyfrom the three perspectives ofan old cow, amother coyote, and an aging cowboy near the ends of their lives. Evans, however, also introduces in...
Referência(s)