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"Such sad, unsentimental tales capture not only the
dissonances of familial life, but also the fundamental
loneliness of the human condition, the same themes
explored with such ferocity and lyricism in Mr.
Shepard's work for the theater. 'Cruising Paradise'
serves as both a welcome companion piece to his plays
and a kind of map to the writer's mind."
...Michiko Kakutani, NY Times
"Shepard delivers far more than low-rent grit and
looming despair. True to his gifts, he presents these
tales in straightforward and uncondescending ways, with
transcendent wit, and the sum is compassion. In
'Cruising Paradise' the landscape is never just a
backdrop. And his characters, on their strange journeys,
are never just curios: They live, as we do, in both
flesh and spirit." ...C.L. Rawlins,
Washington Post
"Shepard has right
stuff in his first collection... The first two-thirds of
'Paradise,' tales of fiction and personal history, find
the California-raised writer on familiar turf - motels,
bars, the rootless road culture of Western spaces. His
style has some of the spare dignity of Hemingway and the
funny, slouchy slanginess of an anti-hero."
...Dan Hulbert, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Shepard's pieces
of pure dialogue are hit-or-miss affairs, and some of
his slice-of-life meanderings are merely evocative, if
always dexterously rendered. But his more developed
stories are vividly compelling and often funny,
delineating rugged landscapes peopled by loners,
cowpunks - and even a few movie stars." ...Margot
Mifflin, Entertainment Weekly
"Sam Shepard's
reputation as a talented playwright, screenwriter and
actor is well established by his many films and more
than 40 plays. With his new collection of short stories,
Cruising Paradise, one can add to this list that of an
impressive writer of fiction. His gritty, poignant tales
of the young, the old, the street-wise and the innocent
are brilliantly crafted and an excellent read."
...Birmingham News
"It would be a
serious mistake to look on these stories as a by-product
of his status as a celebrity. Shepard was first a writer
and has established himself as one of our finest
playwrights. The margin of surprise here is that he is
such a very fine writer of short stories. Playwrighting
and short fiction don't usually mix in such a miraculous
way. The short story is closer to the play than the
novel is, but they are still very different. This
collection places Shepard among our best short story
writers." ...Terry Doran, Buffalo News
"'Cruising
Paradise', a captivating collection of 40 micro-stories,
brooding monologues and eerie dialogues, features a
motley cast of loners, losers, introverts and tough guys
caught in crisis.Written over a span of six years, these
inimitable 'swiftly told-tales', as Sam Shepard's
publisher describes them, are a brilliant fiction debut
by the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright."
...Miami Herald
"Sam Shepard -
playwright, actor, ex-rock musician and real-life cowboy
- has spent a great deal of time in his car. He hits the
road to think, to write, to escape, to scope out the
American landscape and - whenever possible - to avoid
flying, which he hates.So it should come as no surprise
that Shepard also burns up a lot of rubber in 'Cruising
Paradise,' his quirky, moving, drolly funny and always
surprising collection of short tales." ...Chicago
Sun-Times
"Sam Shepard
proves himself master of short stories." ...St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
"Shepard, perhaps
better known as an award-winning playwright and as an
actor, can illustrate a mood in a word, a character's
life history in a sentence... All of the stories
are fascinating. They are tales one might hear while
sitting on the porch of a prairie cabin or out front of
a desert beer joint, chairs tipped back, waiting for the
heat of the day to pass."
...Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor, Florida Times-Union
"Like the late Sir
Noel Coward, Sam Shepard is a man of many talents: He is
simultaneously an actor, a playwright, and -- as this
new collection of very short stories reveals -- an
insightful listener to the voices of others."
...Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Known mostly as a
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and movie actor,
Shepard is comfortable enough with the short story to
blur, at times, the line between the stage and the page.
Like chamber music, which was originally intended for
small gatherings, these stories approach the reader in
the guise of shy, intimate secrets. Frequently, they
emerge from something larger than life."
...Dionisio D. Martinez, St. Petersburg Times
"As in his dramas,
Shepard explores themes of solitude and loss, often
tying them to the vast open spaces of America and to the
siren song of its highways. And even as it plumbs
shocking darkness, his writing here exhibits the
gentleness and lyricism that has distinguished his
acclaimed work for the stage." ...Publishers
Weekly
(Audiobook reviews
below)
"Shepard weaves all these pieces into a tapestry of
broken American dreams and grabs your full attention
with both his prose and his
performance. He brings each of his characters to life
with a distinct
voice, tone, and psychological presence...
By the end of the tape, the
listener has been
filled to the bursting point with remarkable images,
sounds, and
feelings. This is truly a tour de force."
...Laurence Chollet, The
Bergen Record
"Shepard the writer has a knack for pulling the strands
of his prose pieces taut in the pull of a final
sentence. Shepard the reader does full justice to this
compelling material." ...Dick Lochte, LA
Daily News
"'Cruising Paradise' is a collection of fascinating,
unconventional, short-short stories by one of our most
original dramatists, Sam Shepard, author of 45 plays and
screenplays. An Oscar-nominated actor, Shepard reads as
well, in a dry, ironic voice that adds an undefined
humor. It makes this tape worth getting even if you have
read the book." ...Houston Chronicle
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