Tall Uncut

by Pete Fromm

Book Overview

In this honest, contemporary collection of short stories about the American West, Pete Fromm writes of hunting and fishing, of long car trips through open landscape, of relationships between men and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558217460
• ISBN13: 9781558217461
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 163 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Taking aim . . .

This slim volume of stories by a young Montana writer focuses on the perspectives of youth - first romances, newlyweds, relationships between parents and children. His mastery of the craft of storytelling makes them sparkle with precision, and his knowledge and apparent love of hunting and fishing give them a dimension not often found in fiction. My favorite in this collection, "Broken Flock," weaves together the story of a boy and his divorced father, duck hunting together, and a lesson about life that draws an analogy between shooting into a flock of flying birds and the excitement of romantic conquests. A close second, "Bone Yard," concerns a game warden whose nights in a cemetery watching for poachers are an excuse to stay away from a failing marriage. Tyrannical, self-absorbed, and absent fathers figure in several stories, like the uncle in "Trash Fish," whose rage has made him the black sheep of the family, finally alienating his nephew while they are fishing. The spirit of a dying father attends his son and the old man's friend as they hunt turkeys in "Spring," and an already dead father leaves a bitter legacy to his three sons in "Eulogy." Infidelity is the subject of other stories, as the wife of an unfaithful husband in "Bean Time" waits patiently for him to end an affair and only then experiences a change of heart about him. The discovery of an unfaithful wife sends her buttoned-down husband on a cross-country trip to New Orleans in "Mardi Gras." A young fisherman struggling with guilt and remorse over an extramarital dalliance is caught in a storm-tossed lake in "Storm Clouds." Meanwhile, the sweetness of young love finds plausible and quirky expression in "Eloping," as a lawman welcomes his L.A. bride-to-be to Montana. In "Breathing On the Third Stroke," a swimmer comes to terms with his basketball playing young wife. In "Shooting Stars," a broke but optimistic couple has car trouble at night on an Indian reservation. And in "Mighty Mouse and Blue Cheese From the Moon," a young wife copes good humoredly on a fishing trip with her not-so-bright husband. A well-written book filled with many small pleasures, a depth of compassion for people of sometimes limited resources, an understanding of heartbreak and resolve, and a love of the outdoors.