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Stories
by Callan Wink
Book Reviewed by: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.
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
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Rebecca Foster).
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:
by JP Gritton
Published 2019
A cross between Daniel Woodrell and Annie Proulx, Wyoming is about the stubborn grip of inertia and whether or not it is possible to live without accepting oneself.
by Diane Les Becquets
Published 2017
In captivating prose, Diane Les Becquets tells the story of one woman missing in the Colorado wilderness and another bent on discovering the missing woman's whereabouts, in an unforgettably moving and thrilling literary debut.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd rather have been talking
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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.
