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Book Reviewed by:
Rebecca Foster
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In the tradition of Richard Ford, Annie Proulx, and Kent Haruf comes a dazzling debut story collection by a young writer from the American West who has been published in The New Yorker, Granta, and The Best American Short Stories.
A construction worker on the run from the shady local businessman whose dog he has stolen; a Custer's Last Stand reenactor engaged in a long-running affair with the Native American woman who slays him on the battlefield every year; a middle-aged high school janitor caught in a scary dispute over land and cattle with her former stepson: Callan Wink's characters are often confronted with predicaments few of us can imagine. But thanks to the humor and remarkable empathy of this supremely gifted writer, the nine stories gathered in Dog Run Moon are universally transporting and resonant.
Set mostly in Montana and Wyoming, near the borders of Yellowstone National Park, this revelatory collection combines unforgettable insight into the fierce beauty of the West with a powerful understanding of human beings. Tender, frequently hilarious, and always electrifying, Dog Run Moon announces the arrival of a bold new talent writing deep in the American grain.
Excerpt
Dog Run Moon
Even in his current predicament Sid couldn't help but admire the dog. A magnificent bird dog for broken country such as this, no two ways about it. Sid kept going, hobbling, feeling the sharp rimrock make raw hamburger out of the soles of his feet. When he turned he could see smears of his blood on the flat rock shining black under the moon. And then, the shafts of headlights stabbing the jutting sandstone outcroppings. He could hear the shouts of Montana Bob and Charlie Chaplin as they piloted their ATV over the rough ground.
Sid hadn't stolen the dog. He'd liberated the dog. He firmly believed this and this belief was the fundamental basis for the disagreement between himself and Montana Bob. Montana Bob thought ownership meant simple possession. Sid thought otherwise. He'd been in town for two months and his path to and from work took him twice daily through the alley. The dog would follow his passing through the chain- link and Sid would ...
There's plenty of grim material in these nine stories, making them suitable for fans of David Vann or Cormac McCarthy. The book's most memorable image for me is a pretty darn macabre one: a vulture sits on a man's shoulder "like some hideous overgrown parrot," pecking at the shotgun hole he blew in his head. At the same time, I could appreciate the rough beauty of Wink's prose. A few in this collection are a bit less compelling, but the stand-outs I've highlighted more than make up for them...continued
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(Reviewed by Rebecca Foster).
Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall
Callan Wink's debut is impressive indeed. Fine, oldfashioned, rich and juicy fiction. Weeks later I'm still living with the characters. Joy Williams, author of The Visiting Privilege
Callan Wink seems to know well the stratagems and delusions of men's hearts. He also seems born and bred to shortstory mastery. Ron Rash, author of Above the Waterfall
Callan Wink's stories remind me of expertly tied trout flies beautifully crafted, true to reality, and barbed. What a fine young writer. Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek
Callan Wink has the wisdom to write only of the things that matter, and the talent to make these stories as fresh as the literary headwaters from which they come. Thomas McGuane, author of Crow Fair
Callan Wink's fresh, urgent stories have an energy and propulsion that set them well apart from the cerebral finger painting of so much literary fiction. Here is a writer with a great big horizon.
Dog Run Moon is mostly set in Montana. Here is a selection of recommended books also set in Big Sky Country.
Winter: Notes from Montana by Rick Bass
This is a memoir of the author's first winter spent in Yaak Valley, Montana with his wife, the artist Elizabeth Hughes, whose line drawings illuminate the book. With their dogs and alongside other isolated neighbors, they faced a hostile yet beautiful world and went back to the basics of survival: finding wood, and chopping and burning it. Like Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Winter is full of lyrical passages about the sanctity of a simple life: "This valley shakes with mystery, with beauty, with secrets – and yet it gives up no answers."
Painted Horses by Malcolm...
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If you liked Dog Run Moon, try these:
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