Empty Bed Blues: StoriesUniversity of Missouri Press, 1 apr. 2006 - 208 pagini The fifteen stories of George Garrett’s Empty Bed Blues (his eighth book-length collection) are vintage Garrett—no two alike—with each moving, one way and another, in new and daring directions. His stories are deeply concerned with the old verities of love and death and filled with the joys and woes of characters who come to life and command our attention. Diversity is the key word for Garrett’s short fiction. He works in every known form and invents a few himself. In “A Story Goes with It,” Garrett fondly remembers an old friend while retelling a story the man once told him. Most of it is probably not accurate, as Garrett is quick to admit, but the mixture of fact with fiction makes for an entertaining read. His stories turn like the sharp curves of a mountain road, abruptly changing from a fond trip down memory lane to a sleazy reporter’s quest along the backroads for the ultimate crime story in “Pornographers.”He tops off his collection with “A Short History of the Civil War,” a series of poems written by two participants: one a Confederate, the other a Yankee. In the marriage of fact and fiction, of comedy and pathos, and the music of many voices, the stories of Empty Bed Blues reconfirm the judgment of novelist and story writer Richard Bausch, who said in 1998: “There is no writer on the American scene with a more versatile, more eclectic, or more restless talent than George Garrett.” |
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... hear briefly, before his father's voice calls out a crisp command, music playing on the radio. That will be his sister or his little brother fooling around. Upstairs probably. He is almost close enough to see through the lighted windows ...
... hears his sister and brother coming down the stairs like a pair of wild ponies. Looking up, turning, he sees his father, smiling in shirtsleeves, coming out of the living room with the evening paper in his hands. “Here they are,” he ...
... hear is music. Someone out of frame and off camera is whistling a tune, a child's ditty or a little folk song. The sound of the whistling dissolves into a flute playing the same tune, as the car pulls up and parks in a space directly in ...
... hear that. And now I want you and your people to stop farting around and get this oper- ation under way. Do you understand me, Admiral? Yes, sir. I want the operation to take place immediately. You understand that? Yes, sir. Like ...
... hear each other . " You boys waiting for an airplane ? " he asked . " Yes , sir . Going to fly out of here to Houston in about fifteen minutes . " " Well , sir , I don't reckon you're going to make that flight and there won't be another ...
Cuprins
1 | |
2 | |
6 | |
3 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR | 50 |
4 THE MISERY AND THE GLORY OF TEXAS PETE | 57 |
5 TANKS | 61 |
6 EMPTY BED BLUES | 69 |
7 GHOST ME WHAT S HOLY NOW | 83 |
8 Spilling the Beans | 105 |
9 Pornographers | 117 |
10 With My BodyI Thee Worship | 124 |
11 HEROES | 147 |
12 A PERFECT STRANGER | 155 |
13 GATOR BAIT | 164 |
EPILOGUE | 177 |