Immagine dell'autore.

Richard Shelton (1933–2022)

Autore di Going Back to Bisbee

27+ opere 344 membri 11 recensioni 1 preferito

Sull'Autore

Richard Shelton is a Regents' Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Fonte dell'immagine: Copyright (c) The University of Arizona Poetry Center

Opere di Richard Shelton

Opere correlate

Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories (1992) — Collaboratore — 394 copie
Across the Pond (2013) — Narratore, alcune edizioni110 copie
A Good Man: Fathers and Sons in Poetry and Prose (1993) — Collaboratore — 20 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
1933-06-24
Data di morte
2022-11-29
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
USA
Attività lavorative
Poet

Utenti

Recensioni

A story not just about Shelton going back to Bisbee but he reminisces about various things on his trip back.The reason why he is going back to Bisbee is not nearly as interesting as the stories he tells about the ghost towns, flora and fauna, storms and Bisbee history.
 
Segnalato
foof2you | 6 altre recensioni | Dec 27, 2022 |
I give this only three stars not because of the quality of the writing but because of the niggardliness of the selection. It's like "The Byrds' Greatest Hits" with only 5 songs and not including "Mr. Tambourine Man".
 
Segnalato
jburlinson | Jan 27, 2013 |
Mr. Shelton's lovely non-fiction book never travels in a straight line, and the reader isn't going to get back to Bisbee any time soon. He rambles, digresses, and describes, explains and reflects, and throws in his own personal philosphy for good measure. And he anthropomorphizes. Boy, does he anthropomorphize, and not just animals but also his old van, buildings, plants, about anything that crosses his path. Since I tend to do that myself, I don't have a problem with it. And he encounters ghosts. I don't have a problem with that, either.

The author's love and respect for the southern Arizona desert makes this book a gem. I learned a bit of history of the area, about a early fort where the Buffalo Soldiers were sent, the Apaches who made the area so unsafe for settlers and miners, the booms and busts of mining in the area, and the resilience of the people who lived in and around Bisbee. I learned a great deal about this desert, and the things, sentient and otherwise, that populate it. And all in a wonderful, lyrical prose. I learned about the author and his tolerant wife, but this was not so much a memoir as it was a journey. The author apparently did not have an ideal childhood, but he did not delve into that part of his life, only alluded to it.

The author has respect for all the natural creatures of the desert, and his writing about our horrid treatment of coyotes, past and present, is especially poignant:

“I do not understand how the person who truly loves a dog, loves it enough sometimes to risk his or her life for it, can exterminate coyotes, the dog's cousin, in hideous and sadistic ways.”

“We love and cherish our dogs because they respond with loyalty and affection, and because they obey us. But the coyote, so much like the dog in appearance and even behavior, has refused to accept us as masters, has spurned us, and we can never forgive it.”

His stories of some of the children he taught can break a heart of stone. Mr. Shelton seems to be an idealist and a dreamer but also very down to earth, and the combination made this book highly readable for those of us who don't mind taking the long way 'round.
… (altro)
½
1 vota
Segnalato
TooBusyReading | 6 altre recensioni | Aug 17, 2012 |
This is the heart wrenching story of one man's experience teaching creative writing in the Arizona prisons over the course of 30+ years. The stories of various individuals and situations all serve to support the book's inditement of the American prison system as completely untenable and counter-productive. Excellent.
½
 
Segnalato
snash | 2 altre recensioni | Oct 14, 2010 |

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Statistiche

Opere
27
Opere correlate
4
Utenti
344
Popolarità
#69,365
Voto
3.9
Recensioni
11
ISBN
39
Preferito da
1

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