Dreams of Quivira: Stories in Search of the Golden West

by Robert Franklin Gish

Overview

Robert Gish's stories of the old and new West speak of the search for a region of the mind and heart, as much as the places where westerners live out their personal dramas. For some the West remains a destination of renewal and hope, like Coronado's Quivira, promising escape from wrong starts and thwarted desires, and holding out the possibility of transformation. For others it is the graveyard of expectations, or the entrance to a darker inner territory where desires are shaped by loss and violated innocence. From a spirited recreation of Elfego Baca's historic gun battle against a hoard of murderous Texas cowboys, to a coming-of-age story that suggests a near magical masculine-feminine duality, Gish's stories are animated by passionate tensions between landscapes and cultures, universal dilemmas and private lives. Written in a lyrical yet earthy style that reflects the dreams and conflicts of his characters, these stories draw strength from Gish's deep roots in the West and from his singular ability to lay bare the longings of the human heart.

About the Author:

Robert Franklin Gish, Ph.D, heads the Ethnic Studies Department and is a professor of English and ethnic studies at California Polytechnic State University. A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gish is the author of numerous essays and books on ethnicity and the American West, including "Beyond Bounds: Cross-Cultural Essays on Anglo, American Indian, and Chicano Literature"; "Nueva Granada: Paul Horgan and the Southwest"; "When Coyote Howls: A Lavaland Fable"; and "Songs of My Hunter Heart: A Western Kinship." His other collections of short fiction include "First Horses: Stories of the New West" and "Bad Boys and Black Sheep: Fateful Tales from the West."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780940666979
Publisher:	Clear Light Publishers
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	6.48(w) x 8.68(h) x 0.85(d)

What People are Saying About This

Tom Auer

There are whole lifetimes in these magical stories, laced with secrets and surprises and dreams and disappointments and humor. Like Gish's characters, most of us seek our salvation mostly in the wrong places, sometimes tumbling upon truth where we should have looked for it first--in our hearts and in the search itself.

Tony Hillerman

In his Dreams of Quivira Bob Gish proves the short story form is again alive and well in America.

Rudolfo Anaya

Dreams of Quivira is written with honesty and a load of talent. There is a depth of characters here that we seldom find in short stories. Each story rings with haunting truth, some pain, and a redeeming message. A welcome addition to Gish's work.

Editorial Reviews

[Gish's] writing is highly addictive; read him once and you're hooked. Worse yet for those readers who are trying to kick this growing dependency, he is prolific.

Albuquerque Journal

Like Flannery O'Connor, Gish probes beneath the surface of ordinary lives, exploring the twists of life and the hidden longings of the heart. The author is blessed with an American heritage of storytelling.

Santa Fe New Mexican

Historian, critic and fiction writer Robert Franklin Gish is an ardent lover of a particular slice of the American West. As this collection demonstrates, he's at home in the landscape's history and myth, setting out to reveal vistas not found on an outsider's map. -- Kimberly B. Marlowe, New York Times Book Review

Kimberly Marlowe