The Signal

by Ron Carlson

Book Overview

"The Signal accelerates like an avalanche...If men can't be brought back to fiction by books as fine as this one, it's their own damn fault."
-The Washington Post

Ron Carlson, author of the critically acclaimed Five Skies, is an award-winning writer beloved by booksellers, reviewers, and readers alike. His most thrilling book to date, The Signal follows the story of Mack and Vonnie, a married couple...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143117556
• ISBN13: 9780143117551
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.7" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Not just for men

This is a book for anyone who enjoys a suspenseful story with focus on the thoughts and motivations of an interesting character and his relationship to the land he loves, the woman he loves, and his struggles with himself. I found it to be redemptive and it's on my list of the best books I've ever read.

A Summer Must-Read!

If you are interested in reading a book that will completely transport you and stop you from doing anything else, buy The Signal. You will bite your nails and savor every word of this wonderful novel.

Great Stuff

Ron Carlson's The Signal is a terrific novella, a story of a man trying to find his way back to life, to prosperity, to happiness, after his release from a short stay in prison. Mack has arranged a camping trip, the last of a series of annual excursions into the Wyoming wilderness with his ex-wife, Vonnie. Mack's been in jail, participated in some questionable ventures and the trip is not simply one last trip--he's got some hidden motives. Things start to spiral out of control in the narrative, but never in the telling. Carlson is an excellent writer; the writing is spare but the story is rich. Mack and Vonnie are intriguing characters that defy simply stereotyping. Carlson's description of the wilderness is enough to make the most camping-averse reader see the beauty in these excursions. The Signal is a great story and a terrific read. Enjoy!

A Deeply Appealing Work That's Easy to Appreciate on a Variety of Levels

There's more intense action crammed into Ron Carlson's brief new novel than in many works twice its length. Couple that with two complex and absorbing protagonists and gorgeous writing that pays homage to the natural world, and you have a deeply appealing work that's easy to appreciate on a variety of levels. For each of the last 10 years, Mack and Vonnie have rendezvoused on September 15th for a few days of camping and fishing at Clark Lake, in the Wind River Range of western Wyoming, where winter edges in even before the arrival of fall. After eight years of marriage, the two have divorced, but they've agreed to reenact this ritual a final time. Mack, the son of a rancher, has fallen on hard times. After his father's death, he has sold off two-thirds of the ranch's acreage and has closed the dude ranch where he met Vonnie as a teenager when she came west in the summertime. Failing as a bookstore owner and computer consultant, Mack has descended into the grim and dangerous job of drug running while battling alcoholism. His impulsive decision to apply an iron pipe to the windshield of Vonnie's boyfriend's car lands him in jail for 20 days, and he is about as close to the bottom as he can get. Mack and Vonnie's idyll begins calmly enough, as they traverse mountain trails and fish for trout in shimmering lakes, the tensions of their fractured relationship simmering just under the surface. But when they stumble across some elk poachers with ties to Mack's drug work, their trip takes on a decidedly darker and more violent turn. Vonnie injures her leg in the attempt to escape, and after traveling together for a time they decide to split up in the hope of eluding their pursuers. To complicate matters, Mack's fishing trip isn't entirely for pleasure. A sinister figure named Yarnell, for whom Mack had previously forwarded coded computer messages, has hired him to spot what Yarnell describes as a crashed drone aircraft. Yarnell has provided a GPS-equipped BlackBerry to help Mack spot the downed craft. His reward is $10,000 if he brings back the drone's mysterious cargo intact and $5,000 simply for locating the plane. But when Mack, in the midst of his escape, finally finds it, he makes a frightening discovery that thrusts him even deeper into danger. Carlson doesn't overplay the cat-and-mouse game as Mack and Vonnie flee on foot down the mountain with several ruthless and determined men on horseback and in helicopters on their heels. Yet there are enough hairsbreadth escapes and a powerful sense of uncertainty about the plot's resolution to propel the story forward to its intense conclusion. Inseparable from the novel's tightly-constructed plot is Carlson's deep engagement with the natural environment, the "wild rough top of the world" where the story unfolds. On almost every page, it seems, there's a fresh, closely observed detail. From the "sound like a river rock walking down a stream bottom" to the sky he describes as a "gray pillowed gridlock,"

How the Weather Was

Ron Carlson proves up to Gertrude Stein's challenge in this fine piece of writing. That it is a compelling story, tempts you to rush through the chapters to know the outcome and final resolution of the relationship between the two main characters. But do not cheat yourself in this read. Dwell in the efficiently pounding prose describing the magnificent mountain country of the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Carlson's eye and wordcraft captures both the grandness of the region and the reverent details of a land celestially conceived and created. A good tale, extremely well told.