The effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno boy : recollections and short essays / by Gary Soto.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Soto, Gary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soto, Gary.

Poets, American--20th century--Biography.

Poets, American.

Fresno (Calif.)--Biography.

Fresno (Calif.).

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 205 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Persea Books, [2000]

Summary:

Only the most assured essayist dares to explore the everyday world we all inhabit yet so rarely truly see, to render seemingly mundane moments into prose that is sweetly sharp and full of wonder. Gary Soto is one such writer. In narratives that are tender or outrageous, delirious with joy or touched by heartbreak, he falls in love, picks up hitchhikers, uses his wits to solve the hunger of stray dogs, and discovers the writing life.

Set mostly in Soto's hometown, Fresno, and the San Francisco Bay area, the forty-eight pieces in this volume include the much-lauded recollections "The Jacket" and "Like Mexicans," as well as new, never-before-collected essays, among them "Childhood Worries, or Why I Became a Writer" and the title piece in which Soto fashions himself to be Fresno's own Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian writer of the 1920s who lived on nothing more than his five senses, who walked around his town observing the ordinary with amazement.

Contents:

The Girl on the Can of Peas 3

The Jacket 6

The Arts 10

Left Hand, Right Hand 13

Animals All Around 16

Oranges and the Christmas Dog 20

Like Mexicans 29

First Love 34

Secrets 37

Money 41

Finding a Wife 44

Colors 48

Going Back 50

June 53

Blue 56

Waiting 59

White Blossoms 63

This Man (1) 67

My Nephew 70

On Our Own 73

Pets 77

Taking Notice 80

Evening Walk 84

Dining in Fresno 89

The Concert 93

Canary, Cat, and Dog 96

The Young Poet Under a Tree 99

The Man on the Floor 101

To Be a Man 104

This Is Who We Are 106

Expecting Friends 111

Pulling a Cart 115

Ziggy 118

This Man (2) 123

Piedra 126

Fire 129

Moving Around 132

Listening Up 135

One Thing After Another 138

The Talking Heads 143

Moses 146

Guess Work 149

Night Sitting 152

Saying Things 155

The Childhood Worries, or Why I Became a Writer 161

The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy 175

Getting It Done 185

Who Is Your Reader? 196.

Notes:

"A Karen and Michael Braziller book."

ISBN:

0892552549

OCLC:

44777302