Research Catalog

Title

Condor dreams & other fictions / Gerald W. Haslam ; afterword by Gary Soto.

Author

Haslam, Gerald W.

Publication

Reno : University of Nevada Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

203 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

• In this collection of twenty-five short stories, Gerald Haslam explores the rural areas and small towns of his native region - California's Great Central Valley. The stories reveal a principally masculine cast that is as culturally diverse, and sometimes as zany, as Westerners actually are - a Chinese laborer, a Portuguese farmer, a Vietnamese schoolboy, a black cowboy, an Okie rowdy, an Armenian poet, plus some who blend those and other ingredients.
• The opening story, "Condor Dreams" is a reflective and delicately instructive tale of a father and son and their connection with the California condor that serves as a metaphor for the region's traditional way of life. "Scars" is a poignant examination of the life of a young man victimized by his alcoholic mother. In "Rising Action" fifteen-year-old Ernest alternately yearns for his first sexual encounter and seeks out a confessor to save him from purgatory.
• In "Mal de Ojo" Haig regales his gullible charge with the tale of the longest fistfight in small-town history. These pieces range from traditional stories to vignettes to sketches and tales as Haslam seeks literary structures that powerfully project his characters and their experiences. The author's triumph in these stories is that, by making us care about his characters and their settings, he allows us to care more about ourselves and our land.

Series Statement

Western literature series

Uniform Title

Western literature series.

Alternative Title

Condor dreams and other fictions.

Subject

• Working class > Central Valley (Valley) > Fiction
• Men > Central Valley (Valley) > Fiction
• Central Valley (Calif. : Valley) > Fiction

Contents

Condor Dreams -- Cowboys -- It's Over. . . -- Scars -- Mal de Ojo -- Medicine -- That Blackberry Wilderness -- China Grade -- The Killing Pen -- Elephant Tips -- Good-bye, Uncle Seamus -- Madstone -- Return, Prodigal -- The Last Roundup -- Stolen Glances -- The Souvenir -- Sojourner -- Widder Maker -- Road Kill -- Romain Pettibone's Revenge -- Scufflin' -- His Ways Are Myster'ous -- The Great New-Age Caper -- Home to America -- Rising Action.

ISBN

• 0874172276 (alk. paper) :
• 0874172322 (pbk. : alk. paper) :

LCCN

93033531

OCLC

• 28966550
• ocm28966550

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries