Riding the Wind and Other Tales

By James Hoggard

Even a place as big as Texas is ultimately made up of small things: a rugged mesquite shrub, a fruitless mulberry tree, a decaying neighborhood park with a polluted creek. When you place a rabbit in the shade of that mesquite, or a ring of Stars-of-Bethlehem blooming at the base of the mulberry, or some boys in the park attempting to fly a box kite, or especially when you begin to explore memories triggered by the sights and smells of these small pieces of the mighty Southwest, then you begin to find what makes Texas or any place real: stories -- James Hoggard's stock in trade. This collection of tales represents Hoggard's nearly thirty-year contribution to Texas literature. As with Larry McMurtry's In a Narrow Grave , Hoggard's ruminative and witty tales link issues of time, place, culture, and language. Riding the Wind connects nasty Texas weather and life on the inhospitable plains with the need to tell stories. "Sandstone and Ice: Memory and Sight" revives a childhood memory of a rattlesnake-ridden sandstone hill and the frozen pond at its base and uses the image as a metaphor for the narrative powers of memory. Many of the stories, such as "Back There, Passing Through," are poignant meditations on time and place set in familiar Texas towns. This collection is not limited to regional topics, however as is evident in "Letter from Nineveh," a powerful account set in the Middle East, where Hoggard was a visiting scholar just before the start of the Gulf War. Hoggard's unpretentious, self-deprecating, and funny narrative voice and his original and insightful observations on the human condition will delight any reader -- from native Texans to those who have never set foot in the Lone Star State.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890967814
• ISBN13: 9780890967812
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Tender reminiscences of Texas life

Sometimes it's tough to be a Texan. It takes a love of unpredictability to make a person strong enough to experience all that our good state has to offer. And it takes a certain native talent to write about the emotions and thrills that make up the everyday life of Texas.James Hoggard is a true Texan. A professor of English at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, Hoggard knows the excitement that Texas has to offer, and he conveys these thoughts and sentiments through the stories and observations in his book, "Riding The Wind & Other Tales."Upon reading the title story of this collection, "Riding The Wind" (a narrative of the April 10, 1979, tornado that ravaged Wichita Falls), I found myself remembering all of the events of that fateful day. Hoggard's imagery and word choice make it seem like only yesterday that the tornado changed my life forever, and I found tears in my eyes as I read for the first time about the young mother who lost her children from underneath her in the tub. I've never heard that story, and I thought I'd heard them all.Other stories in "Riding The Wind & Other Tales" are not as sad. Hoggard offers tender reminiscences of his Texas childhood and shares adult memories and meditations on life. He writes stories of what he knows best -- family and friends. Some of the tales are poignant, some are witty, some will make you chuckle out loud. This is short literature at its finest.