Discoveries
Western Reflections, 1998
Summary
This collection is set around Kent Nelson’s home territory in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, but, as in all Nelson’s stories, the characters and events are varied. In “Discoveries,” a man reads his girlfriend’s journal and is distressed not by what he finds out but by his own invasion of her privacy. In “A Way of Dying,” an old miner returns the gold he’s found back into the creek. In “Toward the Sun,” a marathoner’s girlfriend watches him run trails in preparation for a race, only to discover he’s training for another reason.
Nelson’s stories are unsettling and calming both. His prose is exact, and his knowledge of the human psyche enables him to create complexities in his characters’ experiences that are both simple and profound. Each story is a finely crafted gem, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of the human heart and mind.
Quotes from Book
“She kissed me quickly and got out, passed in front of the Jeep’s lone headlight still on from the rain, and got into Ruth’s Ford. She waved to me, and then she and Ruth were gone from the parking lot and were behind me up the street. I turned off the Jeep and sat a minute, looking at the gray sunlit facade of the church. I wondered what existed and what didn’t, and what I was going to do in the long winter ahead.”
From “The Spirits of Animals” in Discoveries
“If he’d thought about it, he’d have assumed Arliss had such notions, too. She probably dreamed of Robert de Niro and William Hurt. But there was a difference between thinking something and writing it down. Thoughts were harmless spirits—ethereal, transient, and essentially meaningless. Words were solid. Words had intent and the drift of truth.”
From “Discoveries”
“He walked between two rows of strawberries, and about halfway down, a movement in the meadow made him stop. He looked up and saw an animal lying in the grass. By the color, he assumed it was a deer—dark cocoa—and it didn’t move. Deer often grazed the meadow in the early morning, but he rarely saw them lying down. Maybe it was sick.
“Then the animal raised its head—a massive head with light eyes—and Marshall saw it was a dog. A big dog.”
From “One Turned Wild” in Discoveries
Sample Short Stories
The Actress
The Spirits of Animals
Light and Rain