Can You Get There from Here?: Stories (Southwest Life and Letters)

By Donley Watt

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870743775
• ISBN13: 9780870743771
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr
• Length: 163 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

FINE PROSE FROM START TO FINISH

Bet you can't read the opening of one of Donley Watt's Texas based short stories without being hooked. "While Darryl drives, Maureen practices, sighting with the hood ornament of the pickup, lining up the V between the ram's horns with the cars they meet." So begins the story of Maureen, she of the exceptional hand/eye coordination, who joins her husband and his unappealing friend for their annual hunting trip. "My name is Lynn Hendry. I'm sixty-one years old and my life has come down to realizing this: from the time a boy turns thirteen not a day passes that he doesn't think of sex, and when a man reaches sixty not a day passes that he doesn't think of death." These are the opening lines of "The Man Who Talked To Houses," a brief, beautifully spun reminiscence about reconciliation and hope. "Okay, I say, but before I begin this story, you need to know the ground rules. You follow them or I show you the door. Is that clear? Julie doesn't say a thing, just puts both thumbs under her hair and lifts it, waves it a minute in the steamy air...." Then before we know it, we are hearing an older man admit to a young girl that he accidentally killed his best friend who was also her father. Poignant and deeply felt prose. You don't have to be a Texan to relish these tales because Watt knows how to write, and he's a keen observer of people. Yes, his opening lines are impressive; his debut collection is terrific.