What the Critics Say
About Phil Condon
|
|
A moving love story, and a powerful psychological study of alienation and grief, Clay Center presents a startling examination of that time in which the American dream was revealed to contain its own nightmare. — from the publisher |
Nature, & Place
|
As patiently as he searched for water on a small patch of land in Missouri, Phil Condon water-witches his way through westerly geographies of land and of being in his collection of personal essays, Montana Surround. The natural world is where he lives, walks, and works, as well as the springboard for his deep and generous reflections on the importance of place. From Nebraska and British Columbia in his youth, to Missouri, to diverse landscapes and moments in Montana over the last seventeen years, Condon creates an intriguing map of past, present, and future. — from the publisher |
|
In "Starkweather's Eyes" a grieving son remembers his frightened mother and absent father
in the fall of 1957 when the notorious teenage mass murderer rampaged across Nebraska.
"Babyman" depicts a bitter and obsessed Detroit rent-a-cop who exploits women and their
babies until he meets a woman tougher than he is. A woman whose third marriage is
faltering has an erotic encounter on an Amtrak train that causes her to reexamine her
life's old and new losses in "Seven." The title novella portrays a drifter riding the
rails into a mountain town where his desperation spawns a mesmerizing spate of violence.
In language rich in metaphor and detail, Condon's stories expose the turbulences of the
human spirit and reveal the outside-chance possibilities his characters have for grace.
— from the publisher
|
