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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... light. Lazy end of a long summer day. The park (no more than a rough grass field) is empty now except for the two of them. Somewhere not far away a car horn toots, a dog barks, a woman calls her chil- dren in for early supper. “Come on ...
... lights of the boy's house being switched on downstairs. Can 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 ...
... light traffic. The only sound we 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 ...
... light, all concerning George Garrett—his career, his work and himself” left me bemused. The request evoked happy memories of years ago—most of them funny, a few even hilarious (which I regard as an intrinsic compli- ment to George ...
... lights . Pulls me over . Parks and comes around to my window and raps on it . I run it down . " May I see your license and registration , please , sir ? " he asks politely . “ And if you don't mind my asking , just what the fuck do you ...
Cuprins
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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 |