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May 26, 2008

William rated it:

Five Skies follows what should be a fine formula for a short novel: the characters are familiar; the setting is dramatic; the issues are those that have been sounded in a number of novels of the American West. The problem is that the genus of brooding Western men is an overplayed type; while publishers may not get enough of them, perhaps readers can. We have met these men — whose pains are buried, whose losses are great, whose relationships with women are muted, awkward, and transparently affect More...

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Jan 13, 2008

martha rated it:

This book is a slow-paced story of labor among strangers. By the end, you willwish that Ronnie, Darwin, and Arthur Key were your real life friends. You will be sorry to let go of them. This is a story of pain and loss and past regrets, of atonement played out through hard labor. It is an engaging story about real people.

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Dec 16, 2008

Nathan rated it:

My first encounter with Carlson, and I liked the terrain of this novel a lot –– three strangers who are brought together to complete a construction project on a windswept plateau in Idaho. The three men are diversely compelling, but Carlson portrays with too heavy a hand the personal/emotional setbacks (two deaths and an affair with a brother's wife) they're fleeing. He also has a really curious way of handling "big" urgent scenes, of which there aren't actually very many (and not to t More...

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Sep 22, 2008

Will rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Ron Carlson-A Kind of Flying (2003), At the Jim Bridger (2002), The Hotel Eden (1997)-is one of the best-kept secrets in American letters, though he hasn't published a novel in three decades (focusing on short fiction instead), and he certainly doesn't make his living on flash and dash. Nonetheless, he's considered one of the best stylists working today, his name uttered along with those of Wallace Stegner, Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, Kent Haruf, and other writers who explore the terrain and u

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Nov 25, 2008

Susan rated it:

Five Skies reminded me just a little of A River Runs Through It because it was a male-oriented, manly-man type of book. A random group of men is assembled to work on a mysterious building project in Southern Idaho. As the reader gets inside the heads of these men and realizes how each has been damaged by events in his past, it becomes obvious that as the construction progresses the men are healing. Their lack of verbal communication was frustrating to me . . . I kept hoping they'd actually SP More...

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Feb 08, 2008

Gordon rated it:

I really like Ron Carlson. His stories are full of memorable characters acting memorably, they exist in small interactions and come to grips with the world around them. After 50 pages I had to check the book flap (and I am still not entirely convinced) to see if I was reading some other Ron Carlson. This book is fragmented, the charecters are fine, but under drawn, It is almost as if he had 1,000 pages and cut them down to the 250 he put in the book. The book was an exercise in one of his st More...

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Jul 01, 2008

Caroline rated it:

I read all of Five Skies, and I really wanted to like all of it, but mostly I liked none of it. Carlson's short stories are great, but this, his first novel, seems off pace and off focus. I was intrigued by the premise of three sort of "construction dudes" coming into their own and forming some important relationship. Ultimately, though, the writing seems to focus more on endless descriptions of, like, cranes and backhoes. The relationships among the men struck me as inconsequential... More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Bembo rated it:

Three men, each with something he is trying to run away from, come together through circumstances to work on a project to build a jump ramp for an Evel Knievel style leap over a remote canyon in Idaho. Darwin Gallegos, the local man who will lead them is the eldest, the two men he employs are Arthur Key and the much younger Ronnie Panelli, not yet twenty years old.

Arthur, a big muscular man, has left Los Angeles, a tragedy and a betrayal; Ronnie, slim or skinny, is running away from a More...

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Feb 16, 2011

Kristin rated it:

Five Skies, Ron Carlson, New York, 2007

Five Skies by Ron Carlson is a novel that would have been far more enjoyable as a short story. While the characters are real and believable, other aspects of this story fall flat very quickly, and though the premise of the story is interesting, the drawn-out style of writing makes this book tiresome and plodding. It is evident from the style and background of the writer that he was either unused to this style of writing.

The storylin More...

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Feb 04, 2011

Vera rated it:

As I read Five Skies I realized I was learning something about my father, that I had never thought about before. That's the way it is with novels that rise above the ordinary. Literature teaches us something about the people we know, as well as bringing to life places and people we don't know.

"Measure twice, cut once," my father would say. His strict father, a tin smith who worked on furnaces and ductwork, insisted he do things right. "Live so that the world will be a l More...

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Jul 15, 2010

ICPL added it

This is a review I wrote for Library Journal:

Big Arthur Key, ace Hollywood stunt builder, drifts into Idaho, the better to hide from his past. He serves as a mentor to nineteen year old Ronnie Panelli, who’s making transitions from boy to man, from thief to carpenter. Together, they’re hired by Darwin Gallegos, filled with rage at his wife’s recent death in a fluke accident. Their project is to build a ramp for a daredevil’s motorcycle jump across a canyon. None of these men is parti More...

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Nov 14, 2009

Allison rated it:

Someone said to me that Ron Carlson is a “writer’s writer.” And I believe it. I first heard him give a reading at the Napa Valley Writer’s Conference in 2008. He was funny, grounded, and just the kind of guy you’d want around if your car broke down, or if you’d lost a mattress off the back of your truck on the way to a fancy function. Which happened to be -the plot of a wonderful story he read that night.

I gave Five Skies to my father last Christmas, and I will most certainly circula More...

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May 25, 2009

Will rated it:

I picked this book up at the Gordon Street Library book sale. (Only $2.) Carlson's name had stuck in my mind from Ann Beattie's "Contemporary American Short Story" class, in which we read his story "Oxygen." I remembered it as one of the best pieces we read in that course; this is quite a compliment, because Ann Beattie really knows how to pick great stories. "Oxygen" is a masterpiece of the form.

With Five Skies, Carlson tries his hand at the novel form, More...

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Oct 04, 2011

Carlos rated it:

Summer of Change

Five Skies by Ron Carlson. Penguin Books, New York, 2008.

Ron Carlson's "Five Skies" is a novel about soul-searching. The story centers on the lives of three men, all of which have experienced loss and forgotten innocence in their lifetime. Over the course of a summer, in southern Idaho, the three men will grow to trust each other and find redemption for their past mistakes. Ron Carlson uses vivid imagery and a fluid style to showcase to his rea More...

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Mar 03, 2010

Steve rated it:

The first half of this was a real struggle. It's an exceptionally slow story, with very little happening most of the time, but I actually enjoyed that about it. What made it tough going was the forced, artificial suspense of withholding secrets about the characters' pasts and the mysterious construction project they've all been hired and brought together for. Once those secrets came out, the pace of the story picked up and felt much more natural. In some ways, the almost absurd construction proj More...

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Jan 16, 2010

reed rated it:

This book is so good; it's hard for me to find the words to describe why I loved it so much. First, the men in this book remind me of my father and uncles. They are cryptic, serious, and deeply honest. This book lays to waste the pervasive stereotype that rural men are emotionally stunted and content to be that way.

These men create and sustain their relationships with each other via shared work. Work is the means to pride, respect, knowledge, and intimacy. I've never read a book tha More...

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Nov 15, 2011

Elyse added it

What do you do to put your life back together?
Try building a ramp in the middle of nowhere.

Ron Carlson
Five Skies
Viking Penguin, 2007

Set in the vast, harsh landscape of Idaho, Five Skies is about loss, friendship, and more loss. It is a slow moving narrative of a summer spent by three, emotionally-battered strangers building a stunt ramp on the edge of a ranch. While giving plenty of time to the construction and scenery, the story focuses on the men’s More...

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Mar 11, 2009

Claire marked it as to-read

From his how-to-write book, arrived at this as well. I tend to like fiction with lots of detail (like Arthur Hailey for instance), and the building-process is as interested as any. I worked at Illusion Theater while Block E was going up, and could look down and see the whole thing coming together. But I had no idea what I was seeing of course. I used to gripe that construction sites should put up some sort of electronic message system that could give updates... even something like: 'initial stru More...

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Mar 24, 2010

Chone rated it:

This is a book for readers who enjoy romantic depictions of the West; who like to read descriptions of landscape that (subtly) mirror the inner beings of the characters trying to survive in that landscape; who like stoic men (with a rare bit of dry humor) building things and precise descriptions of physical labor; who like quiet heroes; who believe that people can maybe change but no, not really.

It's not a book for people who like characters that are ironic or dramatic. It's not a bo More...

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Sep 21, 2009

Rich rated it:

If I could give this book a zero, I would.

Billed as an award winning tale of redemption and manliness (or something), this is actually a book that is largely about three guys avoiding conversation while constructing a ramp in the Idaho wilderness. Sure, there's some character development here and there. But by the end, you aren't even sure which one of them, as the back of the book put it, "rises above his dark nature" and which "falls beneath the weight of it." More...

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Dec 27, 2011

Rob rated it:

In this quality novel, Ron Carlson shows the reader how characters and simple human struggles can make a novel. Three men in different strokes of their life work together to build a motorcycle ramp for a jump in Iowa, working through set-backs, talking, and enjoying the silences of the world around them. Each chapter has a burning reality to it, and the characters never lose their believability even for a moment. While not much happens plot wise, this book is proff that it doesn't have to. A goo More...

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Apr 07, 2010

Sassacaia rated it:

I enjoyed my dive into this beautiful world I know so little about... construction, Idaho and three very different men's lives.

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Aug 16, 2010

Dick rated it:

You may have seen Janie's review, so I will keep this short. This is our second Ron Carlson book -- we also greatly enjoyed "Signal." We listened to this one on a CD driving back from Minnesota. Carlson is a great story teller with a knack for character development. He also does a wonderful job of capturing the feeling of living and working in the mountains, in this story, an Idaho construction site far away from civilization. I've often thought of trying to write a book someday. More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 17, 2009

Phair rated it:

Someone told me this book was dreadful (it was the Read Across Rhode Island selection for 2009) so I did not look forward to reading it for our discussion group. I ended up liking it very much. The writing, especially in the descriptions of nature, was very poetic. The central people were NICE and I was happy to meet them. I liked the way we only got to know back-stories of characters in bits and pieces over time the way you find out about people in real life. Friendships earned, respect, honor More...

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Jun 01, 2011

Mary rated it:

I have never read Carlson before. I really liked this book which follows three very likable men who have demons in their pasts. I found I got to appreciate the characters, especially Arthur Key who has made mistakes and is paying for them. He is a good man and takes Ronnie under his wing, helping himself and the young kid begin to make peace with their past issues and the way they have lived their lives. In the process, Art, Ronnie and even Darwin who hires them to work on a construction pro More...

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Jul 24, 2010

Suzy rated it:

I actually finished reading this a couple of weeks ago (I'm behind in my Goodreads reviews) so my memory is clouded by two books read since, but, i liked this book quite a lot. It provided interesting insight into how men share their stories and their pain. Not like women, in whooshes of feeling and information, but in tattered shreds hard won. Three men who are at first strangers work together on a building project in an isolated desert area. Two are middle aged and one is a teenager, comin More...

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Apr 16, 2009

Melissa rated it:

This is one of those books that sorta roll-over you. I can't quite pinpoint what it was I liked about this book - there were many things. The story takes place in Rocky Mountains in Southern Idaho where 3 men meet up to build "something". And it shares the communication and relationship between these men and their work - it's sometimes awkward, private, loving and familial...and mostly mesmerizing when including in the landscape and description of the terrain. I like the "lone More...

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Jan 24, 2009

Judith rated it:

Five Skies by Ron Carlson is the Reading Across Rhode Island book for 2009. Three men live together on a construction site at the edge of a magnificent river gorge in the wilds of Idaho, doing a job. Each is troubled by grief and each is soothed by the hard physical work of building, their growing friendship, the experience of two older men teaching the younger their skills. The project, a ramp and staging for a Knievel style motorcycle stunt, a big money canyon jump, is a petty counterpoint to More...

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Jul 11, 2011

Jen rated it:

This book is very different from my usual picks. The main characters are all men. The three men come together by pure circumstance and end up working together out in the high desert of Idaho building a ramp for a trick motorcycle rider to jump across a river ravine. The story really tells the reader how through the experience of living and working together, these men face some of their own private demons and begin to heal from past tragedies. The tragic ending caught me by surprise.

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