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Rating: 
Summary: Stegner's Collection of Stories is all You'll Need
Review: Of all the authors I have read, few evoke such good feelings as Wallace Stegner. It's a shame that he was killed in a car crash in the early 1990s. I think he was just getting warmed up and he certainly had decades of experience yet to share with us. This collection of stories, like his novels, shows the conflicts of the human soul. Stegner liked to write about young boys coming of age in an often thoughtless society (and family). And, as you will learn by reading Jackson Benson's biography of him, Stegner had an autobiographical bent while writing his fiction. The locales of his stories resemble those places where his gambling, drinking father took him and his family in the early 1900s. It seems that Stegner was obsessed with his father, and many of his stories feature a version of him. He and his father had a rather poor relationship and Stegner's writing about him perhaps was his effort at catharsis. My favorite story in this collection is Goin' to Town. The expectations of this poor boy are shot to .... and he is left to endure the boredom of yet another day. Excellent stories, excellent writer.
Rating:
Summary: Stegner's Collection of Stories is all You'll Need
Review: Of all the authors I have read, few evoke such good feelings as Wallace Stegner. It's a shame that he was killed in a car crash in the early 1990s. I think he was just getting warmed up and he certainly had decades of experience yet to share with us. This collection of stories, like his novels, shows the conflicts of the human soul. Stegner liked to write about young boys coming of age in an often thoughtless society (and family). And, as you will learn by reading Jackson Benson's biography of him, Stegner had an autobiographical bent while writing his fiction. The locales of his stories resemble those places where his gambling, drinking father took him and his family in the early 1900s. It seems that Stegner was obsessed with his father, and many of his stories feature a version of him. He and his father had a rather poor relationship and Stegner's writing about him perhaps was his effort at catharsis. My favorite story in this collection is Goin' to Town. The expectations of this poor boy are shot to .... and he is left to endure the boredom of yet another day. Excellent stories, excellent writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Introduction
Review: When people ask who my favorite author is, Wallace Stegner is invariably one of the four or five names I toss out. And often I get the same response... "I've never read any Stegner" or even "I don't know the name". Stegner seems to be one of American literatures best kept secrets.These stories are an excellent introduction to Stegner, his style, and his ability to write vividly about life. A number of the stories in this collection were eventually incorporated as chapters in three of his novels: "The Big Rock Candy Mountain", "Recapitulation", and "Wolf Wilow".
Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction
Review: When people ask who my favorite author is, Wallace Stegner is invariably one of the four or five names I toss out. And often I get the same response... "I've never read any Stegner" or even "I don't know the name". Stegner seems to be one of American literatures best kept secrets. These stories are an excellent introduction to Stegner, his style, and his ability to write vividly about life. A number of the stories in this collection were eventually incorporated as chapters in three of his novels: "The Big Rock Candy Mountain", "Recapitulation", and "Wolf Wilow".
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