The Stars Above Veracruz by Barry Gifford
As author Barry Gifford was writing these pieces, he gradually came to realize that what he was creating was a geographical fiction, or a geography of fictions. As Barry explains, Everybody has a story, no matter where they are in the world, and I conceived the device of The Ropedancer when I was in Veracruz, Mexico, at a hotel much like the Hotel Los Regalos de Dios, where the former funambulist, whom I call The Ropedancer, took up residence following the demise of the Dancing Ciegas, who plunged to their deaths from a high wire. Many of these stories are tragic, some humorous, but all told by individuals in the confessional mode which is often the posture assumed by persons adrift in a foreign land and who find themselves not uncomfortably in conversation late at night with a stranger. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Gifford saw his novel Wild at Heart become the David Lynch film, and he co-wrote the screenplay for Lost Highway; this series of snappy vignettes has a cinematic quality, more like a treatment for an episodic film (à la Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth) than a collection of stories. Gifford repeatedly conjures the hard-luck story and the noirish setting as he points his lens from South America to New Zealand. After Hours at La Chinita, set in a tacky Spanish-style motel in Los Angeles circa 1963, stages the shooting of a prostitute's abusive customer by God-fearing proprietress Vermillion Chaney; 20 years later, each of the players in the drama tells a version of the sad, late slide of the rest of their lives. Almost Oriental involves tortuous travel and romance inside a still-shuttered, deeply suspicious Romania by a Stanford University academic on the trail of Bukovina-born Jewish writer Rudolph Buddy Traum. Another long piece, Murder at the Swordfish Club, concerns an elaborate murder mystery surrounding the death of a fisherman in the New Zealand coastal town of Russell. The prolific Gifford has produced multiple fully realized novels (such as 2004's Wyoming); this book, while vivid, feels like a break. (Jan.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The prolific Gifford, whose novel Wild at Heart was adapted into the award-winning 1990 David Lynch film, here renders visceral vignettes that often seem better suited to the big screen than to print. A tightrope walker introduces the collection, whose diverse locales include New Zealand, Honduras, and France. There's a one-legged man who hangs himself over an unrequited, albeit incestuous, love: Even had he the use of both legs, they would not have saved him. Instead of walking across the rope he finished by dancing at the end of it. In the masterful After Hours at La Chinita, a prostitute, a celebrated supper--club singer, and a Bible-thumping motel clerk recount details of a deadly shootout. In the title tale, a man sips beer in a Mexico City cantina once frequented by bullfighters as he reminisces about a Eurasian girlfriend with dove-shaped hands and heady perfume. Although Gifford's short stories are endlessly nervy (there's a brash, bearded lady and a lingerie salesman who seduces women with his wares), his avid fans may find themselves longing for more substantive fare. Allison Block Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved Review An artful ride down dangerous roads. -- Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2005 About the Author Barry Gifford is a literary lion whose novels have been translated into twenty-five languages and who's been the recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Library Association, and the Writers Guild of America. His novel Wild at Heart was turned into a David Lynch film, and he co-wrote the screenplays for Lost Highway (1997) and City of Ghosts (2003). His more recent books, Wyoming and The Phantom Father were named the Los Angeles Times Novel of the Year and a New York Times notable Book of the Year, respectively. He also cowrote the film Lost Highway (1997) with David Lynch, and co-wrote with director Matt Dillon the film City of Ghosts (2003). His essays and stories have appeared in Punch, Esquire, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and El Pais, among other publications. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Publication Details
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Binding: Hardcover
Published by: Thunder's Mouth Press: , 2005
Edition:
ISBN: 9781560258070 | 1560258071
256 pages.
Book Condition: Very Good
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