The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy: Recollections and Short Essays

By Gary Soto

Book Overview

These small essays are not unlike Dutch paintings of the sixteenth century. They are clear and precisely rendered, and are either thematically domestic scenes or pedestrian in their observations of the ordinary. There is a delirious joy in Soto's writings, and heartbreak. This collection features his much-lauded essays "The Jacket" and "Like Mexicans," along with new essays such as "Childhood Worries, or Why I Became a Writer," "Getting It Done," and the title essay in which Soto fashions himself to be Fresno's own Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian writer of the 1920s who lived on nothing more than his five senses.

Poet and critic Christopher Buckley said of his poetry, " Soto has] mastered his form, has found his voice, and has the life experiences to provide meaningful content." He could have been speaking of his prose as well. Soto is at home with the essay; he is able to paint moments that would otherwise seem dull and not worthy of comment. He picks up hitchhikers, sorts through the mystery of finding a wife, and pulls together his wits to solve the hunger of stray dogs. He is tender and outrageous; he is reflective on worldly matters and cagey with his family and friends. In all, his dazzling effects of language will keep the reader continually surprised.These portraits are set in his hometown, Fresno, and in his current residence, the San Francisco Bay area. They therefore mark his time and place, but honor the instincts of the master Knut Hamsun, who walked around his town, a spectacle of wonder.

This volume includes forty-eight pieces: all of the personal narratives formerly collected in Small Faces, the best of Lesser Evils--both volumes long out-of-print--as well as five new essays.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892552549
• ISBN13: 9780892552542
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Persea Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

This is writing

If you missed Gary Soto's short stories the first time around, here's your chance to enjoy a great collection of his older pieces along with some new ones. While Soto makes it look easy, his series of generally two- to three-page recollections are a primer on how to see the things people walk past, overlook or forget, the things right in front of you. From stories pulled straight from his childhood in Fresno and reflections on growing up to the present, Soto's gift is evoking what he's seen and felt and combining it all in honest, vivid prose. In The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy you will find writing that is sad, funny and sadly funny. It contains insights that are both personal and universal. Soto is not only a teriffic "Chicano writer," but, a teriffic writer without any categorical qualifier.

A smorgasbord of images and reflections on social issues

Essayist and poet Soto provides a series of sketches and vignettes In The Effects Of Knut Hamsun On A Fresno Boy which includes the contents of two previous works in addition to five recent essays published in different journals. The result is a smorgasbord of images and reflections on social issues, growing up in California, and moments of Soto's Latino youth.