Bring ME Your Saddest Arizona (John Simmons Short Fiction Award) (Iowa Short Fiction Award) - Softcover

Harty, Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877458693 ISBN 13: 9780877458692

Publisher: University of Iowa Press, 2003

Synopsis

The vast, unsettling landscape of the American Southwest is as much a character in Ryan Harty's debut collection of stories as its protagonists. Eight vivid tales of real life in the West remind us that life's greatest challenge may be to find the fine balance between desire and obligation.

About this title

Review

"The desert exists as blazing limbo in Ryan Harty's Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona. Boys and women drive out of their abandoned pasts to see Phoenix glow like a revelation at the end of a highway. From Tubac to Tumacacori, along Tonelea Boulevard and Indian School Road, siblings as beautiful as movie stars go to war or disappear, heroes lose their way, and petty criminals reveal themselves in telling gestures of grace. Harty's southwestern, dark edge of suburbia characters are so believable we feel we know them.... Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona reveals a New West both haunted and shining, and Ryan Harty's quiet, cumulatively powerful voice, true in every detail and poignant tone, is unforgettable."

"If there is such a thing as irresistible sadness, this collection possesses it; already, having finished it, I am nostalgic for this book. These stories are troublingly beautiful in the way the desert is, and will be about as easily forgotten."

"Love hurts--and Ryan Harty is here to count the ways. In these sharply observed, well-written stories, he gets below the surface of ordinary lives, where the heart can be felt. In Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona, Mr. Harty shows his gift of being smart and honest, and he reveals that looking for home in the suburbs is always a complicated search."

"The desert exists as blazing limbo in Ryan Harty's "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona." Boys and women drive out of their abandoned pasts to see Phoenix glow like a revelation at the end of a highway. From Tumac to Tumacacori, along Toneleo Boulevard and Indian School Road, siblings as beautiful as movie stars go to war or disappear, heroes lose their way, and petty criminals reveal themselves in telling gestures of grace. Harty's southwestern, dark edge of suburbia characters are so believable we feel we know them. . . . "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona" reveals a New West both haunted and shining, and Ryan Harty's quiet, cumulatively powerful voice, true in every detail and poignant tone, is unforgettable."--Jayne Ann Phillips

"Love hurts--and Ryan Harty is here to count the ways. In these sharply observed, well-written stories, he gets below the surface of ordinary lives, where the heart can be felt. In "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona", Mr. Harty shows his gift of being smart and honest, and he reveals that looking for home in the suburbs is always a complicated search."--Ron Carlson, author of "The Speed of Light"

Love hurts and Ryan Harty is here to count the ways. In these sharply observed, well-written stories, he gets below the surface of ordinary lives, where the heart can be felt. In "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona," Mr. Harty shows his gift of being smart and honest, and he reveals that looking for home in the suburbs is always a complicated search. Ron Carlson, author of "The Speed of Light""

The desert exists as blazing limbo in Ryan Harty's "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona." Boys and women drive out of their abandoned pasts to see Phoenix glow like a revelation at the end of a highway. From Tumac to Tumacacori, along Toneleo Boulevard and Indian School Road, siblings as beautiful as movie stars go to war or disappear, heroes lose their way, and petty criminals reveal themselves in telling gestures of grace. Harty's southwestern, dark edge of suburbia characters are so believable we feel we know them. . . . "Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona" reveals a New West both haunted and shining, and Ryan Harty's quiet, cumulatively powerful voice, true in every detail and poignant tone, is unforgettable. Jayne Ann Phillips"

"Love hurts--and Ryan Harty is here to count the ways. In these sharply observed, well-written stories, he gets below the surface of ordinary lives, where the heart can be felt. In Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona, Mr. Harty shows his gift of being smart and honest, and he reveals that looking for home in the suburbs is always a complicated search."--Ron Carlson, author of The Speed of Light

"The desert exists as blazing limbo in Ryan Harty's Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona. Boys and women drive out of their abandoned pasts to see Phoenix glow like a revelation at the end of a highway. From Tumac to Tumacacori, along Toneleo Boulevard and Indian School Road, siblings as beautiful as movie stars go to war or disappear, heroes lose their way, and petty criminals reveal themselves in telling gestures of grace. Harty's southwestern, dark edge of suburbia characters are so believable we feel we know them. . . . Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona reveals a New West both haunted and shining, and Ryan Harty's quiet, cumulatively powerful voice, true in every detail and poignant tone, is unforgettable."--Jayne Ann Phillips

About the Author

Harty is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Julie Orringer, and teaches at Stanford.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0877458693
• ISBN 13: 9780877458692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 172