The Centaur's Son: Stories [Paperback]

Philip Daughtry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

Philip Daughtry writes, both autobiographically and fictionally, of love, intellectuality, danger, and farce.

Daughtry trespasses federal land in Oregon to greet a wild stallion; follows a young cheating husband through pagan Ireland as he attempts to heal a wounded bird to win back the trust of his wife; visits a doomed drunken poet in Helsinki; finds first love, for a night, in 1960s Paris; works with an insane cowhand in lawless Belize backcountry; traffics special cargo into Ireland; describes the lives of children living and playing in an abandoned prison camp in northern England; travels with gypsies along Spain’s Gold Coast; and speculates on a flooded world where haunted men sail between mountaintops of islands:

In my experience few men embraced this quietude and so confused human will with human being. Whole nations charged arrogantly onward at the directives of pragmatic reason over earthly evidence denying dominion to all species under meaningless flags of suicidal faith. These still, final hours tell me I am among the last of a race that awakened too late to the forces of air, earth, fire and water. Men have no name among galaxies gathering dust where dust began and I will not sign one as this paper runs out.

Philip Daughtry was born in England in 1942 and is a descendant of American outlaws Frank and Jesse James. He was involved in the Baby Beat Generation during the 1970s San Francisco Renaissance. He teaches at Santa Monica College in southern California.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in England in 1942, Daughtry is a descendant of American outlaws Frank and Jesse James. He was involved in the "baby beat generation" during the 1970s San Francisco Renaissance.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Mercury House (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562791311
• ISBN-13: 978-1562791315
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,232,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Story telling at its finest - Takes you in and you don't want to be let go, May 7, 2008

By 

Julia Irene Romano (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Centaur's Son: Stories (Paperback)

This book is one of storytelling's finest. Each short is a voyage that does not last long enough. I travel to each place Daughtry has been to - Ireland, Brazil, Belize, among many - and I return reluctantly. Days later, an image from one of his stories manifests in my head, and, having become so much a part of me, I can't remember if it is one of my own, if I was the one who made that trip, who nursed the dove back to life, who communed with wild horses, and who surrendered to the jaguar within. It can't be someone else's story, I think, it must be my own, because reading Philip Daughtry's work is like looking inward to a place where everything real and human and eternal is kept - safe. And when you find that safe place, you are grateful that it is there, and that he is its keeper. He is vulnerable, he is strong, he is everything we all are, unabashedly human, and loving, and seeking to be loved. Read this book and taste the salt in a soft ocean breeze.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars on the road, March 7, 2008

By 

Baja Dave (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Centaur's Son: Stories (Paperback)

I love this book! This fine collection of short stories carries me to places that are familiar yet amazingly fresh and real. His sense of poetic awareness, much like the early beats makes the stories come alive. Reading the stories is like a travel log for an adventurer. I couldn't put the book down. What a jem!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching the Core, March 7, 2008

By 

Susan Suntree (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Centaur's Son: Stories (Paperback)

"The Centaur's Son" is a stunning collection, from the author's poetic, pulsing style to the dark wisdom at its core. It seems to me to be a contemporary "On the Road" unfolding in a world where traveling far afield is much easier than in Kerouac's era, but where finding strands of connection is by far more elusive and dangerous. It's as though the author measures and records the dimensions of human life by placing his characters, one by one, against the world's various settings. Against these backdrops, the inner workings of the psyche, with its fill of desire, humor, fear, failure, pride, greed, meet face to face with nature and the locals ways of doing things. In the process, the characters are opened, stripped, reshaped. Daughtry's stories, taken together, remind me of the venerable Zen saying which observes that it isn't the self that confirms the world; in fact, it's the world that advances and confirms the self. This book shows us readers the intimate workings of the advancing world.