Publisher Description

From one of our most acclaimed writers: a collection of tales set mainly in the American West, written with the terse lyricism, cinematic detail, and wry humor that have become Sam Shepard's trademarks.
A man traveling down Highway 90 West gets trapped alone overnight inside a Cracker Barrel restaurant, where he is tormented by an endless loop of Shania Twain songs. A wandering actor returns to his hometown and runs into an old friend, who recounts their teenage days of stealing cars, buying Benzedrine, and sleeping with whores in Tijuana. A Minnesota couple and their children, traveling south for vacation, are so caught up in the ordinary dramas of family life that they remain oblivious to the beauty of the Yucatan peninsula. Stunning, inventive, and powerful, these stories are Shepard at his flinty-eyed, unwavering best.

Author Biography

Sam Shepard is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of more than forty-five plays. He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection Great Dream of Heaven, and he has also written the story collection Cruising Paradise, two collections of prose pieces, Motel Chronicles and Hawk Moon, and Rolling Thunder Logbook, a diary of Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour. As an actor he has appeared in more than thirty films, and he received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for his performance in "The Right Stuff," His screenplay for "Paris, Texas" won the Grand Jury Prize at t

Review

"[Shepard] drills down through the strata of our history into the bedrock of American myth."--Walter Kirn, The New York Times Book Review

"Expansive and rich. . . . With scenarios that are at once unbearable and irresistible, Shepard casts a predictably haunting spell." --USA Today "Gorgeous. . . . Searing. . . . Shepard beautifully records the overlooked, strange places men find themselves, both physically and emotionally." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Sharp enough to move a reader to tears. . . . Funny and smart. . . . Profoundly satisfying. . . . The narrator talks out his conflicts . . . with great precision and beauty." --The Boston Globe

"Expansive, panoramic. Like Bob Dylan, Shepard is a geographer of the rawboned surrealism of America's shadow interior, story after story bearing the name of a town or highway, our national portrait dabbed with a thousand points of darkness." -James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

"These stories [have a] deep, abiding appeal." -The Los Angeles Times

"This is Shepard's brilliance--the ability to continually surprise us. He plays with our heads, pushes boundaries, and in the end makes the journey worthwhile." -The Denver Post

"Shepard [is] one of the most lavishly gifted, prolific artists of his generation." -The Plain Dealer

"These deceptively modest works, reflective and witty, explode with fresh energy. Their touches of absurdity give way to a depth of emotional loss that will sneak up and wring your heart dry. [Sam Shepard] is still a star, still a treasure....It takes an eternally young genius like Shepard to make us laugh and wonder." -The Daily Beast

"Shepard's talent and bent for language is what drives the book. The rhythms. The precision of the words. His instincts on when to give and when to hold back. All together, these pieces take us on a road trip of America, before dropping us off inside ourselves." -The Providence Journal

"His literary voice....[is] strong, unpretentious, and singular....He writes with the kind of authority that makes you believe--and with the kind of depth that makes you think." -Elle.com

"Mournfully funny....Well-observed....As a collection of tiny jewels of language unearthed with great care by a man with a uniquely American voice, it's unlike anything else." -The A.V. Club

"Read [it] the way the faithful may read their Bibles: a few verses nightly to serve as inspiration, and a shield from despair." -The L Magazine

"No one writes like Shepard or better captures the fallout from American myths: of freedom, entitlement and masculinity." -The Post and Courier

"Powerfully entertaining." -Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Gripping and elusive at the same time....Dark and weirdly funny....There's something about Shepard that invites awe. Sam Shepard is Samuel Beckett as Marlboro Man....Readers of Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane will recognize the type." -The Hartford Advocate

"Always there's the tremendous poetry of Shepard's language." -The Oregonian

"Moving....Again and again, we find in Day out of Days, everything in life is a mystery; the road to answers, or even a satisfying sense of place, never ends." -Chicago Sun Times

Review Quote

"[Shepard] drills down through the strata of our history into the bedrock of American myth."-Walter Kirn, The New York Times Book Review "Expansive and rich. . . . With scenarios that are at once unbearable and irresistible, Shepard casts a predictably haunting spell." - USA Today "Gorgeous. . . . Searing. . . . Shepard beautifully records the overlooked, strange places men find themselves, both physically and emotionally." - San Francisco Chronicle "Sharp enough to move a reader to tears. . . . Funny and smart. . . . Profoundly satisfying. . . . The narrator talks out his conflicts . . . with great precision and beauty." - The Boston Globe "Expansive, panoramic. Like Bob Dylan, Shepard is a geographer of the rawboned surrealism of America's shadow interior, story after story bearing the name of a town or highway, our national portrait dabbed with a thousand points of darkness." –James Wolcott, Vanity Fair "These stories [have a] deep, abiding appeal." – The Los Angeles Times "This is Shepard's brilliance-the ability to continually surprise us. He plays with our heads, pushes boundaries, and in the end makes the journey worthwhile." – The Denver Post "Shepard [is] one of the most lavishly gifted, prolific artists of his generation." – The Plain Dealer "These deceptively modest works, reflective and witty, explode with fresh energy. Their touches of absurdity give way to a depth of emotional loss that will sneak up and wring your heart dry. [Sam Shepard] is still a star, still a treasure&.It takes an eternally young genius like Shepard to make us laugh and wonder." – The Daily Beast "Shepard's talent and bent for language is what drives the book. The rhythms. The precision of the words. His instincts on when to give and when to hold back. All together, these pieces take us on a road trip of America, before dropping us off inside ourselves." – The Providence Journal "His literary voice&.[is] strong, unpretentious, and singular&.He writes with the kind of authority that makes you believe-and with the kind of depth that makes you think." –Elle.com "Mournfully funny&.Well-observed&.As a collection of tiny jewels of language unearthed with great care by a man with a uniquely American voice, it's unlike anything else." – The A.V. Club "Read [it] the way the faithful may read their Bibles: a few verses nightly to serve as inspiration, and a shield from despair." – The L Magazine "No one writes like Shepard or better captures the fallout from American myths: of freedom, entitlement and masculinity." – The Post and Courier "Powerfully entertaining." – Richmond Times-Dispatch "Gripping and elusive at the same time&.Dark and weirdly funny&.There's something about Shepard that invites awe. Sam Shepard is Samuel Beckett as Marlboro Man&.Readers of Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane will recognize the type." – The Hartford Advocate "Always there's the tremendous poetry of Shepard's language." – The Oregonian "Moving&.Again and again, we find in Day out of Days, everything in life is a mystery; the road to answers, or even a satisfying sense of place, never ends." – Chicago Sun Times From the Trade Paperback edition.

Excerpt from Book

Kitchen I''ve always done my best work in the kitchen. I don''t know why. Cooking stuff up. Maybe that''s it. Now I''ve got my own kitchen deep in the country with a big round table smack in the middle. But I am surrounded. I''m not sure who put all this stuff in here. Who jumbled all this up on my white brick walls as though it told some story, made some sense; some whole world out of floating fractured bits and pieces. Pencil drawing of Seattle Slew, long after retirement--bloated pasture-belly, glazed far-off stare in his eye as though looking back to the glory days of the Triple Crown. And, wedged between the glass and flat black frame, snapshots of different sons in different shirts doing different things like fishing, riding mules and tractors; leaning up against their different mothers at radical angles. Postcards of nineteenth-century Lakota warriors like Gaul, adopted son of Sitting Bull, price on his head; left for dead only to come back and seek his perfect vengeance at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Henry Miller with a walking stick, black beret, sitting on a rock wall gesticulating to the camera, some quote about morality and why don''t we just give ourselves over completely and unabashedly to the present, since we''re all up against the same grim prospect anyway; same sinking ship. Slaves in sepia tone, harvesting bluegrass seed and whistling "Dixie." Wedged between the tile and brick, more pix of hawks and galloping horses out near where we used to chase skinny coyotes back into the tangled mesquite and ocotillo. Then Beckett''s sorrowful bespectacled hawk-face, gazing into oblivion with no trace of self-pity, resigned, hands clasped between his knees. Underneath in neat black scrawl: "There is no return game between a man and his stars." Who scrambled all this stuff in here with no seeming regard for associative order, shape, or color? Without the slightest care for where it might all wind up. Just randomly pinned to cupboards and door frames, slipping sideways; gathering spotted stove grease and fly shit. El Santuario de Chimay

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