Ganado Red

by Susan Lowell

Eight stories:

White canyon
The kill
A circle, a square, a moon, a tree
Marble
Lavinia Peace
Childish things
Los Mojados
Wild pigs
Ganado red: a novella

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

149 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1988

About the author

Susan Lowell often writes about the Southwest border country in both fiction and nonfiction. Her forthcoming adult short-story collection, "Two Desperados,” returns to the genre of her first book, “Ganado Red.” Her family has lived in the American West since Gold Rush days, and family stories have inspired many children’s books as well as an adult novel in progress called “The Wild West Waltz” (see the story “Two Desperados” for a preview!)
She and her husband divide their time between Tucson, Arizona and a ranch near the Mexican border.

Reviews

[Cooper Denny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to review an assortment of stories. Themes of the southwest with a focus on Arizona and Navajo weaving.None of the stories particularly stuck with me. Some parts felt unnecessarily cryptic which hurt the flow of the story. Not bad for a last minute pick up at a Gallup gas station.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite in this book
of short stories was the
title story, "Ganado Red",
a novella about a blanket
as it was sold and resold,
traveling from person to
person, and the lives the
blanket affected.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

First experience with this author. I was pleased to open the cover and discover that this copy, which I picked up at a book exchange, was signed. This author, Susan Lowell, has a lifetime of experience living in the southwest, and not as a golf-playing tourist but as a fourth generation Arizonan descended from ranchers and miners. She knows this part of the country, its cultures, its history, and its people, inside out. She writes from the heart with unbiased clarity and without sentimentality.

Lowell’s writing is taut. Superfluous words have no place here. The short stories, some written in first person, take you deeply into the psyche of the character without spelling everything out for the reader. Each story presents a slice of life that unfolds with varying degrees of tension. You have to pay attention or you’ll miss a critical piece of the puzzle. I read this book more slowly than I usually read.

The book also contains a novella. A fascinating tale where the different characters stories are all linked by a Navajo rug, woven with precision and love, in the early 1920s. I liked the tone of this part of the book the best. It was a little more relaxed in style.

I’m very pleased that I stumbled across Ganado Red. Well worth reading.

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this fourteen years ago. Can't remember details now, but at the time I wrote "A terrific book of short stories and a novella, by Susan Lowell. A certain tension in each story. Most, but not all, set in the Southwest."

(My rule of thumb with books of short stories is to take my time, not read them all at once. Appreciate each story on its own. Read other things in between.)

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

03.12.2014 on Display @ Berea; Milkweed 1988 best book; a novella and stories; stories chronicling the history of a Navajo rug. Some stories are very good, some not so good; the novella was very enjoyable; 1st Milkweed National Fiction Prize winner, been on my “to read” list for years; 1988 hardcover paperback purchased via Robie Books, Berea, KY; 150 pgs.; 4 out of 5 stars; finished Mar. 11, 2016/#19

[Earl McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although best known for her "Javelinas" children's books, this is the one that shows Susan Lowell's skills as poet and writer. This little gem impressed me so much that I went to Cameron AZ and bought a genuine Ganado Red. Recommended to anyone who enjoys well-written stories.

E. J. McGill, author of Jet Age Man.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this a long time ago- but ready to read again. Was reminded of it by Great House/Krauss, as both have an inanimate object as a near-character or catalyst or object that links unrelated stories into a novel.

[Denis Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not usually a big short-story fan, I really enjoyed this. I like stories with a solid sense of place, and Ganado Red delivers.