The friend who gave me this book gave it one star and described it as a cheap non-"The Road" Cormac MCarthy knockoff. As I haven't read anything by McCarthy besides "The Road", I can't comment. I'm far more familiar with Shepard as a dramatist than a book author, and his dramatic ear for distillation and essence of dialogue is strongly present here. He covers familiar territory: petty criminals, fucked-up relationships, and the mythos of the Old West. Themes of aging and death, the mind-body relationship/dichotomy, paranoia, American machismo, the performative aspects of being human, wrongdoing and repentance and what those things mean, and what true freedom really entails also abound. The book is fragmented into bits of poetry, dialogue, stories only a paragraph long, and longer stories (4-5 pages at most). An enjoyable, fast, and easy read; Shepard shows his trademark wry, self-aware insight into the dark and awkward aspects of human existence, ultimately arriving at a thankful acceptance for all of it. The subtitle of this book is "Stories." I do not think that is a fair description of what this book contains. A few pieces classify as stories, but most of the writing feels more like sketches from an author's journal. There are a few poems scattered throughout and I suppose some of the "stories" (which are often less than a page or merely a paragraph long) could be considered prose poems. There is a connecting theme of aging men making bad decisions and living with regret, and the book almost works as a literary collage. However, ultimately I found it hard to keep interest in this collection. It was much easier to put this book down than it was to pick it back up.
What do You think about Drehtage: Stories (2013)?
read half before having to return to library--read again
—AubreyTayD
