That Constant Coyote: California Stories

By Gerald W. Haslam

Book Overview

Haslam's stories are of the quintessential California of working people who struggle to make a living. He is their spokesperson--no matter what their color or language--because he, too, has chopped cotton under the searing sun, has toiled on drilling rigs in fog thick as oatmeal, has lived in a house where Spanish and English mingled. His writing marks a boundary between the Golden State's stereotypes and the real people who persevere in seeking the California dream.

That Constant Coyote contains twenty-five stories in all, nineteen selections previously published and six new pieces. The stories included in this anthology tell us what life is like in the regions of California and the West where drudgery characterizes each day, where menudo para desayuno or biscuits and gravy replace champagne brunch. Delve into these pages and you will quickly find a set of fascinating characters who inhabit "the other California"--a place Haslam knows well and so deftly describes. Foreword by Ann Ronald. Western Literature Series.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087417161X
• ISBN13: 9780874171617
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Regional short fiction enriched with voice, depth, & humor

Haslam finds the mystical in the mundane, pearls of innocence in a room full of naivete'. Based in the rustic California Central Valley, Haslam creates a field of characters with rich, vivid voices. Raw and humorous, he often takes readers off guard with his expressionistic storytelling. Please seek and read his entire library