Doghouse Roses: Stories - Hardcover

Earle, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618040269 ISBN 13: 9780618040261

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2001

Synopsis

A debut collection of short fiction by the popular singer-songwriter features brutally honest, sometimes autobiographical tales, including the title story about a singer whose life has nearly been destroyed by drugs, "Wheeler County" about a hitchhiker stranded for years in a small Texas town, "Billy the Kid," and more. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

Fans of Steve Earle's music will recognize many familiar themes in his first collection of short stories, Doghouse Roses. Here are tales of drug addiction, the nightmare of Vietnam, and the price of failure (or success) in the music industry. Not surprisingly, the latter topic elicits some of Earle's best work: in "Billy the Kid," for example, he traces the meteoric rise of Nashville's last authentic country-music prodigy, whose early fame was abruptly terminated by a car accident. And in "Doghouse Roses," Bobby Charles's career nose-dives as he grapples with heroin, speedballs, and crack: "He suspended all pretence of taking care of himself, going for days without showering and living on a steady diet of ice cream and Dr. Pepper. He left the house only to cop, driving straight home and sitting in the tiny half bath in the hallway for hours with his pipe." Yet the protagonist, like his creator, finally regains a grip on sobriety, along with a revived career.

Earle misses the mark in "Taneytown," a first-person narrative told through the eyes of a mentally retarded black child. And his focus on the harsh (and very masculine) world of junkies, country music, and execution chambers can grow a little thin. Still, Doghouse Roses offers up an ample dose of optimism. After all, in a world where cold-blooded murderers let innocent men take the rap, and junkies watch their dealers die, the gods of forgiveness can still be summoned with a single rose sold at a convenience store--the age-old remedy for men in the proverbial doghouse. --Gregory Bensinger

About the Author

STEVE EARLE is a singer-songwriter who has released ten critically acclaimed albums since his 1986 debut album, Guitar Town, burst onto the Nashville scene and made him a star overnight. A prolonged struggle with drug addiction resulted in jail time in the early 1990s, but Earle’s recovery and comeback albums, beginning wth the 1995 Grammy-nominated Train A Comin’, have all been critical and commercial successes. His latest album is Transcendental Blues. Earle also works on behalf of a number of political causes, which have been the subjects of his songs for decades. In the struggle to end the death penalty, he serves as a board member of the Journey of Hope and is affiliated with both Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP) and the Abolitionist Action Committee. He is also a supporter of the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. He has been the subject of recent profiles in Esquire and Men’s Journal and has appeared on Nightline and CBS Sunday Morning. He is a frequent guest on David Letterman’s and Jay Leno’s shows.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0618040269
• ISBN 13: 9780618040261
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 206