River Dogs - Softcover

Robert Olmstead

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749391634 ISBN 13: 9780749391638

Publisher: Minerva, 1994

Synopsis

A collection of 12 stories set in rural New Hampshire, populated by wily dairymen, onion planters, small-time hunters and drifting hustlers - characters deflecting pain and rich in humanity. By the author of "Soft Water" and "A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go".

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

The appealing characters in these short stories are mountain loggers, farmers, stonecutters and truckers in upper New York State and northern New England. They lead simple, rustic, routine lives that, in certain moments, which the author captures succinctly and movingly, are broken by poignant, unsettling occurrencessome of which flicker for only a second while others begin a chain of events that alter lives forever. In "Cody's Story," a logger in the woods falls down an icy rock face, nearly dies and remembers events from his life. (Later, while listening to a diesel engine running, he imagines "a thousand small explosions going off inside its block, like all the scenes he couldn't remember and never would.") In "Onions," much of Raymond Knowlton's farm equipment is sold to satisfy a bank debt, leaving him with 200 tons of onions in a glutted market, at which point he and his unhelpful father begin playing a stubborn, deadly game. These fast-paced, invigorating tales are at times cold and cruel, at times warm, and the reader will be intrigued.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"An extraordinary collection. "-The New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Minerva
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0749391634
• ISBN 13: 9780749391638
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248