My People's Waltz
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Book Overview
Richard is like a traveler or pilgrim, moving from Haw River, North Carolina, to Arkansas to the Texas Gulf Coast and finally back to North Carolina again, as he and his people -- they drink hard, dance in their kitchens, lie and cheat -- struggle with their love and wrestle with their often inharmonious natures. In the end the narrator struggles to straighten out some small piece of his heart's crooked essence. My People's Waltz sadly celebrates the decisions we make to get on with the business of living. The stories in this collection have appeared in the Atlantic , GQ , Ploughshares , Best American Short Stories , and New Stories from the South: The Year's Best . Here's what Dale Ray Phillips has said of his own work: "Writing a story is a strange act of discovery; generally, I find that what I have uncovered is nothing more than what I have always known. Also -- and I'm embarrassed to admit this -- I love to lie, and fiction offers an acceptable channel for this compulsion."
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0393047156
ISBN13:9780393047158
Release Date:March 1999
Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
Length:192 Pages
Weight:0.85 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
A marvelously brave, poetic, American voice
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
My People's Waltz is the most memorable book of stories I have read in years. It's set in the humid, salty South, but the futility and blown opportunities that Richard and his parents experience is so real and rich that even a transplanted Jersey girl like myself got sucked right into the amazing narrative, identifying very strongly with Richard, Lisa (his [ex] wife), and even Richard as a child. Every line in this book is believable and entertaining. I hope this author has a novel in the works. His skill is that big. ...
A near-genius debut
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
These linked stories announce a major new voice in American fiction. They investigate through the narrator, Richard, the demise of the American dream at the end of a millennium. Written in prose that takes your breath, I would suggest these stories anyone brave enough to take a hard look at the landscape of loss. To quote the book jacket blurb by Fred Chapel, "My People's Waltz is an experience during which you forget to breath." Highest reccommendations.
A collection of excellent, moving stories.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Dale Ray Phillips is a great voice in American fiction. Summing up the life of the character he calls Richard, Dale Ray breaks into the broken human heart like a burglar and finds the lost riches there. His characters are lost, deaf, and knowingly unholy in a landscape of mischance, love, and unbearable knowledge. Fathers betray sons as naturally as crappies bite hooks, and lovers try to force each other into different shapes. A forceful collection of stories.
Expresses the nature of risk taking, loving, and traveling
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Dale is able to weave the ordinary, humerous, and profound in his stories. I can visualize the places he has been and taste the seafood seasoned with Old Bay, lemon, and butter. This will sound like a cliche but his main character Richard is like a modern day, adult Huck Finn: knowing, aching, and ready to venture out to new territorys.
Touching; a visit to another's childhood, a return to my own
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
I am a writer myself, and every now and then I read something that just screams at me, something that needs to be remembered, something so powerful that it will simmer in my mind for the rest of my life. Phillips' has done this. I have a list of "Examples of Greatness" where I collect "perfections", things that, as a writer, I wish to return to. Phillips has a place on this list.
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