Jan Priddy’s Reviews > At the Jim Bridger > Status Update

I actually read these stories all the way through the first time? I really, really hate football. So far the best might be the two "Disclaimer" pages. Yeah, he's a good writer, but these stories are so thoroughly steeped in young masculine wish fulfillment I can barely stand it. He'd have been 55 when this collection was published. Pretty sad. Like a well-written debut collection of stories by a 30-something. ouch

Tin House originally published "Evil Eye Allen" and I don't know quite why. It's a boy-fantasy, maybe that's why. Most of these stories are.

Didn't like that the woman is "not my wife" rather than named the first time I read the title story. Like it less now.

Somehow this is marked DNF? I used to teach a couple of stories from this marvelous collection so it's getting a reread. The first story "Towel Season" does a remarkable job of revealing genius. Analogy—I know a tech person who explains things this way.

I was nearly through the first story in this collection, and noting how similar the set-up and structure are to "Potato Gun," a story I used to teach. Then the book vanished from my bedside and I have not been able to find it. Then, wondering what he had been up to, I checked Wikipedia and found he was forced to resign after a sexual impropriety was unearthed from his years teaching HS. So okay, I'm done now.