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1st out of 26 books
—
6 voters
Battleborn
Winner of the 2012 Story Prize
Recipient of the 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal FoundationAward
A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" fiction writer of 2012
Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, Battleborn represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionall...more
Recipient of the 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal FoundationAward
A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" fiction writer of 2012
Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, Battleborn represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionall...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
August 2nd 2012
by Riverhead Hardcover
(first published 2012)
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these stories are about encounters. people trying to make connections with other people. some are emotional, some protective, some sexual, some cross-cultural, some just a hand reaching out into the void. and most of them are very good.
the first couple of stories didn't do anything for me, which was a shame, because i really wanted and expected to like the manson one. but it just felt a little writer's workshoppy to me. but after the uneven first two, i pretty much loved every story that followe...more
This author shows some definite promise, provided she can manage to sort out her verb-tense schizophrenia. She doesn't shy away from dicey material. In the first few stories, she revels in the strange and the forbidden, with stories about abortion, incest, a gay male madam at a Nevada brothel, and kids who ran with Charlie Manson. The last few stories are a bit more commonplace, but still edgy, because edginess is the petri dish from which her stories evolve.
Most of these stories are set in Wat...more
Most of these stories are set in Wat...more
14 likes · like · see review
A collection of 10 short stories as hard-edged and unforgiving as the Nevada desert that inspired them. There’s not much joy here, but there’s a lot of honesty and acceptance. In some ways, reading Battleborn is like watching a car crash or a train wreck in slow motion—at once painful and horrible, but at the same time irresistible. The collection is uneven; inexplicably, the first (“Ghosts, Cowboys”) and the last (“Graceland”) stories are among the weakest, so that if you read them in the order...more
Watkins can certainly tell a compelling story, but all of these read less like a cohesive collection and more like a series of glass-damn-near-empty snippets connected sometimes only by their collective sense of hopelessness. Watkins seems to altogether forget the hope, and maybe that's an intentional omission, but in this optimist's opinion it's wholly detrimental to her collection as a whole.
I need hope in my stories. I need humor. Not because life isn't dark, our lots sometimes seemingly cast...more
I need hope in my stories. I need humor. Not because life isn't dark, our lots sometimes seemingly cast...more
I thought this was a pretty remarkable collection of mostly-realstic regional fiction, in this case dealing with life in the parts of Nevada that aren't necessarily Vegas. People here go to Vegas, but they mostly don't live there.
There's a lot of sadness in these stories-- if you wanted to convince people that all contemporary literary fiction isn't sad, you wouldn't lean on this book, which is peopled with lovelorn twenty-somethings, mostly. But Watkins knows her way around a story, so one like...more
There's a lot of sadness in these stories-- if you wanted to convince people that all contemporary literary fiction isn't sad, you wouldn't lean on this book, which is peopled with lovelorn twenty-somethings, mostly. But Watkins knows her way around a story, so one like...more
Even had I not already known the particulars regarding the real-life death of author Claire Vaye Watkins' mother, or how "Razor Blade Baby" got her name, I'm positive Battleborn's opening sentence would've still jolted me. Claire Vaye Watkins' gallows humor knows no bounds, and even though there's little amusing about suicide or the wild-eyed image of an impulsive Charles Manson abruptly "assisting" in a difficult delivery with a rudimentary scalpel, operating in unsanitary, squalid quarters out...more
2012 was a great reading year for me and I was so pleased to run acrosss this beautiful, poignant collection of stories near year end. Late October is the start of the Northern California rainy season. I woke up Saturday morning with San Francisco swathed in low fog and drenched by a slow penetrating drizzle. I started Battleborn with that first cup of coffee and fell spellbound into late afternoon disappointed when I turned the last page.
The book resonated with me because I grew up in Las Vega...more
The book resonated with me because I grew up in Las Vega...more
Quiet battle
I read Watkins’s stories compulsively. I couldn’t stop or look away though I often wanted to. With Watkins longing is a constant state of being. She writes with starkness that’s reflected in the desert settings. Sometimes her stories are set in the old west and sometimes the west of last week. There’s quietness to them. Hatred, lust, and desperation swirl under the surface and only erupt intermittently. Even in the seemingly sweetest of settings and situations sudden violence or even...more
I read Watkins’s stories compulsively. I couldn’t stop or look away though I often wanted to. With Watkins longing is a constant state of being. She writes with starkness that’s reflected in the desert settings. Sometimes her stories are set in the old west and sometimes the west of last week. There’s quietness to them. Hatred, lust, and desperation swirl under the surface and only erupt intermittently. Even in the seemingly sweetest of settings and situations sudden violence or even...more
11 likes · like · see review
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainme...
‘Battleborn,’ by Claire Vaye Watkins, is a 'remarkable debut' of short stories
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor
Published: 03 August 2012 01:53 PM
Nevada shapes each of the characters in Claire Vaye Watkins’ assured debut collection of stories, Battleborn.
The state’s permissiveness influences some characters, as with the working girls at the Cherry Patch Ranch brothel in “The Past Perfect, The Past Continuous, The Simple Past,” or the young women growing up...more
‘Battleborn,’ by Claire Vaye Watkins, is a 'remarkable debut' of short stories
By JENNY SHANK Special Contributor
Published: 03 August 2012 01:53 PM
Nevada shapes each of the characters in Claire Vaye Watkins’ assured debut collection of stories, Battleborn.
The state’s permissiveness influences some characters, as with the working girls at the Cherry Patch Ranch brothel in “The Past Perfect, The Past Continuous, The Simple Past,” or the young women growing up...more
Battleborn is by far one of the best short story collections I've ever read. Each story took my breath away with the strength of the prose and the momentum of each story, often quiet but building and building. Several of the stories made me cry by the end because they were so beautiful and so powerful and I was in such awe. I will say more in an actual review somewhere but this is outstanding. Also, there's a real diversity of narrative techniques at work here. From a craft perspective there is...more
11 likes · like · see review
This is a short story collection written by Claire Vaye Watkins, and is her first published book. Being her first book, I wasn't sure what to expect going into it, but I was pleasantly surprised. A major motif throughout the book is the expansiveness of both the Nevada desert and modern urban society how insignificant individuals are within each. Each of her characters strives to find a way to cope with this insignificance, which reveals a great deal of humanity in each of these fictional charac...more
It couldn’t have been easy growing up Claire Vaye Watkins. Her father – Paul Watkins – was Charlie Manson’s second in command and ultimately testified against him. But to consider this very talented author from that perspective would be reductive. She is a force to be reckoned with and writes so exquisitely and metaphorically that it is hard not to be riveted to the page.
Wisely, she ties in her own mythology with that of the West in her magnificent opening story, Ghosts, Cowboys. The pitiless la...more
Wisely, she ties in her own mythology with that of the West in her magnificent opening story, Ghosts, Cowboys. The pitiless la...more
3 likes · like · see review
This collection is one of those rare ones that's actually as good as everyone says it is. It may be the only one (?) I've read that I can say that about, actually. I think I'm gonna make a list of all of my favorite little bits I highlighted and put them up somewhere soon. Like "She picked up a dusty piece of smoky quartz the size of a spark plug" and "all these once frightful and malevolent creatures streamed into my heart as though it were Noah's, and nested there harmoniously" and "It was an...more
This collection was absolutely incredible. Almost all the stories are set in Nevada and the landscape and environment play prominent roles in the lives of the characters and the psychological issues they are trying to resolve. If you are familiar with the importance nature plays in the writings of Pam Houston or Ron Carlson, the same is true for Watkins. The first six stories were very diverse with characters ranging from men to teenage girls, to a foreigner visiting a bunny ranch. But, then, yo...more
Watkins is talented. Without, it appears, an abundance of pretentiousness. On top of it all, she's young and cute. Like really just cute.
All of that is to say: I should hate her.
But I kinda want to be her friend.
She makes me want to sit down at my computer and pound out some 4000 word short story that explores why my son -- when he thinks I'm asleep -- crawls under the covers and sleeps curled up in the angles of my legs. He does this; his curly head tickling the backs of my knees, his toes pla...more
All of that is to say: I should hate her.
But I kinda want to be her friend.
She makes me want to sit down at my computer and pound out some 4000 word short story that explores why my son -- when he thinks I'm asleep -- crawls under the covers and sleeps curled up in the angles of my legs. He does this; his curly head tickling the backs of my knees, his toes pla...more
I received an advance reader copy of Battleborn with Indiespensable #32. The book jacket would have me believe that Claire Vaye Watkins is on par with Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx, to name a few. This is only Watkins' first collection of short stories, but I would tend to agree that this relatively new (she's published short stories before in the Paris Review among others) author has more than just the makings of something good.
Each of the stories in this collection deals with some aspect...more
Each of the stories in this collection deals with some aspect...more
This a review I wrote for my bookstore, BookPeople in Austin, TX:
Picking up a copy and looking at the back of Battleborn, it's hard not to be interested. How does a debut by a young writer have promotional quotes from Joy Williams, Donald Ray Pollock, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Paul Harding? Impressive to say the least. That mixed with a cover picturing a desert that would be picturesque if it didn't threaten to consume you whole and burn you alive. And such a gritty title, Battleborn. Al...more
Picking up a copy and looking at the back of Battleborn, it's hard not to be interested. How does a debut by a young writer have promotional quotes from Joy Williams, Donald Ray Pollock, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Paul Harding? Impressive to say the least. That mixed with a cover picturing a desert that would be picturesque if it didn't threaten to consume you whole and burn you alive. And such a gritty title, Battleborn. Al...more
Raw, gritty short stories that exemplify quality fiction. I chose the book after reading a review in "Poets and Writers" because Reno is my home and quickly saw Watkins' ability to turn place into character. Yes, the stories are dark, but throb with honest evaluation of lives battle-born. While the geography and history of my state does lend itself to such personification, I need to add that many, if not most Nevadans do not live in perpetual angst. Our state offers so many forms of beauty and h...more
This group of short stories can be read as a contemporary version of Songs of Innocence and Experience. Her stories show us how experience may not bring greater wisdom, but a greater pain of loneliness, isolation and the loss of love. Her characters, usually the narrator, start from a state of relative innocence and, through painful experience, come to grasp the sharp, bitter pain of man’s isolation. Most of the narrators live in virtual or actual physical isolation and instead of finding love o...more
4.5/5 Stars
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins is a gritty portrayal of life in the American West through a series of ten short stories, all set in and about Nevada, in what is her literary debut. Through this common thread, each story takes readers into the time, which goes back to the gold rush and through to the present. Watkins has crafted an impressive collection of stories, which illustrate to the reader the challenges, triumphs, and losses experienced by those in the west at various points...more
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins is a gritty portrayal of life in the American West through a series of ten short stories, all set in and about Nevada, in what is her literary debut. Through this common thread, each story takes readers into the time, which goes back to the gold rush and through to the present. Watkins has crafted an impressive collection of stories, which illustrate to the reader the challenges, triumphs, and losses experienced by those in the west at various points...more
Easily the best collection of short stories (by a single author) I have ever read. Battleborn has the gritty American vastness of an East of Eden, the subliminal violence of a Raymond Carver, the beauty of a sentence by Nabokov. I can't say enough good things about this book. It's heartbreaking, surprising, true. Favorite stories are probably "The Last Thing We Need" and "Graceland." Everyone should read this book. I borrowed it from the library, but I'm going to buy a copy so that one day my hy...more
I'd say a 2 1/2 star book.
No, I'm not really done with it from cover to cover, but there's this feeling that I don't want to continue with it. It happens.
I suspect I may have a problem with much contemporary writing, especially the short story. Perhaps it's a feeling of sameness, that life in this age can never be much different no matter your background. The problem with America is it's drive for all to assimilate, to share the same dilemmas. This could poison the well of creativity.
Claire Vaye...more
No, I'm not really done with it from cover to cover, but there's this feeling that I don't want to continue with it. It happens.
I suspect I may have a problem with much contemporary writing, especially the short story. Perhaps it's a feeling of sameness, that life in this age can never be much different no matter your background. The problem with America is it's drive for all to assimilate, to share the same dilemmas. This could poison the well of creativity.
Claire Vaye...more
This book is a collection of short stories that the author has written about people living in Nevada at different points in time.
I didn't fall in love with the first couple of stories, but was glad that I kept reading because further in the book I found three of them that were fantastic. I think that the stories that I didn't like just didn't click with me, however the entire book was very well written and kept my interest. I liked how each story in the book was unique and didn't resemble the ot...more
I didn't fall in love with the first couple of stories, but was glad that I kept reading because further in the book I found three of them that were fantastic. I think that the stories that I didn't like just didn't click with me, however the entire book was very well written and kept my interest. I liked how each story in the book was unique and didn't resemble the ot...more
**I received this book free of charge courtesy of Goodreads First Reads Giveaways**
The copy I reviewed was an uncorrected proof for limited distribution, the final work will not be released until August 2012.
I've always held a deep appreciation for a great short story because it takes a truly talented writer to create something worthwhile in those few pages and who also possess the wisdom in knowing when to stop. It's clear reading this collection of short stories that Watkins has this incredibl...more
The copy I reviewed was an uncorrected proof for limited distribution, the final work will not be released until August 2012.
I've always held a deep appreciation for a great short story because it takes a truly talented writer to create something worthwhile in those few pages and who also possess the wisdom in knowing when to stop. It's clear reading this collection of short stories that Watkins has this incredibl...more
This was dark and delicious. Watkins writing reminds me a little of Raymond Carver, in pacing, plot and details, but with a side of Cormac McCarthy and Patrick de Witt's The Sisters Brothers. I love the way in which Nevada and a sense of American West, in all it's glory and harshness, tied all of the stories together, the land serving as an undercurrent no matter at which point in history the tales took place.
No story stood out as pushing above or sinking below the others -- the level of consis...more
No story stood out as pushing above or sinking below the others -- the level of consis...more
Well, this is pretty good - rather grim and bleak in its empty lost characters looking for home and meaning, and not showing a completely stunning way with words, but good, honest and complex, definitely requiring re-reading and discussion (if only there was anyone to discuss it with).
The few stories that use off-standard narrative techniques (letters, a historical piece, an odd voice or two) seem a bit experimental, and not as strong. I feel the collection doesn't hang together as well as it mi...more
The few stories that use off-standard narrative techniques (letters, a historical piece, an odd voice or two) seem a bit experimental, and not as strong. I feel the collection doesn't hang together as well as it mi...more
The first story of this collection really impressed me, the rest that I read were sort of "meh." Somewhat average stories, despite the interesting setting of the American Southwest.
"The mind is a mine. So often we revisit its winding, unsound caverns when we ought to stay out." This is the insightful and beautiful writing of Clair Watkins in her first novel, Battleborn. Watkins work is profound and exquisitely written. She uses the land from where she was raised as the framework for her stories- the deserts of Nevada and Death Valley - a rural and harsh land. The terrain reflects her narrative; suicide, violence, neglect and sorrow permeate. Her writing is lyrical, yet uns...more
I was very excited when I received this book in the mail today, however, feelings of dread soon followed...Why? I classify myself as a 'picky reader' This does not mean anything really except that I am easily bored by a novel and if it doesn't grab me from the get go it tends to go into to the pile of "I really should read this" and then never do. This book does not fall into that category. (Thank God, as this is the first book I have won) At any rate, this book grabbed me by bootstraps in the f...more
I won an advanced copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.
When this first came in the mail, I was a little skeptical. I thought, "Ok, this is going to be boring and slow and about people out west. How will I get through this one?"
Could I have been more wrong? I honestly finished this book in one day.
Each short story is different and unique, yet all share a common thread of exposing a darkness within the characters that the reader can surely relate to on some human level.
This will be one...more
When this first came in the mail, I was a little skeptical. I thought, "Ok, this is going to be boring and slow and about people out west. How will I get through this one?"
Could I have been more wrong? I honestly finished this book in one day.
Each short story is different and unique, yet all share a common thread of exposing a darkness within the characters that the reader can surely relate to on some human level.
This will be one...more
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“His cigarettes helped mark the passage of time, especially on days that seemed all sun and sky...The dependable dwindling of his cigarette supply reassured him that he hadn't been left out here, that eventually he would have to ride into town and things would still be there, that the world hadn't stopped whirling.”
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“A promise unkept will take a man's mind.”
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3 people liked it
More quotes…
i wanted to sit on the throne.
woe."
Don't we all.
Apr 02, 2013 06:38pm
Apr 02, 2013 08:30pm