Boston Globe
Houston's voice is something new in fiction-bright, edgy, touching, and ruefully self-aware as she rewrites the old heterosexual blues....Her heroines are lean and tough, self-created adventurers.
Los Angeles Times
Brilliant....Houston claims for women the terrain staked out by male writers from Hemingway to Richard Ford....Her voice is wholly formed and perfect.
San Francisco Chronicle
A collection of smart, surefooted stories, full of humor, intelligence and a kind of steely-eyed wonder....These are the stories that might have emerged had an intelligent woman followed Hemingway around.
San Francisco Chronicle
These are the stories that might have emerged had an intelligent woman followed Hemingway around.
Publishers Weekly
A good man is hard to find, but a good cowboy practically impossible. At least that's what the women in this accomplished, witty and engrossing debut short-story collection discover when they fall 10-gallon-hat-over-spurs for the kind of men who go in for roping cattle, not for romance. In ``Selway,'' among the most gripping of these 12 tales, an intrepid young woman rafts through treacherous white water to keep up with her boyfriend, who is as untamed as the river that nearly kills them. Accompanying Boone (``a hunter of the everything-has-to-be-hard-and-painful-to-be-good variety'') through the Alaskan wilderness during sheep hunting season, the unnamed narrator of ``Dall'' learns about male camaraderie, violence and herself. The cowboy enthusiast in the title story, listening to country music, observes, ``The men in the songs were all either brutal or inexpressive. . . . The women were victims, every one.'' But the women featured here aren't victims: they are smart, funny and likable. A gifted storyteller and a fine writer, Houston brings insight and an original perspective to the heavily trafficked gender divide. Literary Guild selection. (Jan.)
Library Journal
Houston, whose short stories have appeared in such periodicals as Mirabella and Mademoiselle , now has her first collection, the highlights of which are ``How To Talk to a Hunter,'' a story selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories, 1990 LJ 10/1/90, and ``Selway.'' Though these two stand out, the collection as a whole showcases a fresh, original, strong feminine voice. Houston is almost Hemingway-esque in her spare prose, yet richly eloquent in her descriptions of the Western sensibility. ``How To Talk to a Hunter'' oozes sensuality and masculinity, while at the same time getting inside the feminine mind in love with a man of few words. Likewise, ``Selway'' brilliantly shows what the experience of loving an adventurer is like. Houston is a part-time guide in Alaska. This is a strong woman who is wise and cynical but refreshingly optimistic. Her view of man-woman relationships is realistic: wise women get involved with ``cowboys'' they should know better, but they don't. Recommended.-- Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Bay Area Cooperative Lib. System, Cal.
San Francisco Chronicle
These are the stories that might have emerged had an intelligent woman followed Hemingway around.
