![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The stories, all of which take place in Nevada, “the Battle Born State,” drift around in time and history, homing in on characters who are subtly - or not so subtly - processing violence, death, or detachment. Watkins has been likened to Annie Proulx, Denis Johnson, and Joan Didion - all appropriate comparisons - but Watkins’s expansive, wrenching prose signals a unique talent. But with the exception of one story (“Ghosts, Cowboys”), a fictionalized account of Watkins learning about her father, who died when she was six, the tales obliterated my preconceptions. Before I started reading Battleborn, Watkins’s first book of short stories, these were the few things I knew about her, and I figured they would in some way color my reading. Claire Vaye Watkins is 28 years old, she grew up in the Nevada desert, and she is the daughter of Charles Manson’s former right-hand man, Paul Watkins. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |