The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind [LARGE PRINT] (Paperback)

by David Guterson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Reprint of Guterson's 1989 debut, a collection of short stories set mostly in the Pacific Northwest.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal
These stories show Guterson to be a writer of high purpose, one who capably deals with the painful events that illuminate and alter his characters' lives. In "Piranhas," for example, teenaged Paul comes to realize the hatred he feels for his parents, partly because the piranhas in his aquarium seem to display a kind of love and acceptance for each other that he is denied by his self-absorbed mother and father. When he feeds the piranhas, they join together and move with a kind of honesty and devotion to their purpose that mocks his loneliness and confusion. Throughout, poetic sensibility is matched by a fearless desire to look at the truth in human relationships; most of the stories are told as reminiscences by narrators who are seeking some sort of understanding in their retelling. A fine collection.
- Francis Poole, Kentucky Wesleyan Coll., Owensboro
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr; Lrg edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786207051
• ISBN-13: 978-0786207053
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,488,981 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very mixed bag, March 25, 2002

By	J. Mullin (Plantation, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind: Stories (Audio Cassette)

This audio collection contains two cassettes and unabridged versions of many of the short stories in Guterson's collection, but not all stories are included in the audio version. Sorry I can't tell you which ones are here, cause the cover for some reason has no contents listed, and narrator Campbell Scott often moved so fast from one story to the next I never heard the title of half of them.

By and large, I liked the stories on tape number one, especially the poignant tale of two brothers growing up in the 1960's whose family leaves their Oregon coastal motel and moves to Seattle. I think that one was titled "Day of the Moonwalk" or something like that. There is a real sense of nostalgia here, and the interplay between the brothers was heartwarming as they realized they didn't share a bedroom anymore, and as they scoured downtown Seatlle for a basketball hoop.

I also enjoyed the duckhunting tale (probably "Opening Day"), as well as the doomed romance between a bookish young girl and a minor league pitching prospect. I thought the book was narrated effectively by actor Campbell Scott (he of the movie "Singles"), who handled dialogue especially well.

However, especially once we get to tape two, Guterson sometimes lapses into an overly descriptive, somewhat experimental style that probably would give creative writing professors nationwide fits. I was particularly appalled by the story involving the young guy who wanders over an old man's land in Massachusetts, on his way to a nursing home to care for the elderly. Throughout the story, Guterson bombards the reader with an endless array of adjectives and adverbs, over-extending his sentences with unnecessary verbal flourishes that ruined the otherwise mediocre story for me. Hemingway, always a proponent of lean, unflowery prose, would have spun in his grave had he heard this one.

I really liked Snow Falling on Cedars, and Guterson has a knack for writing about the Pacific Northwest and using the setting as an integral part of the story. These stories show a young writer first experimenting and finding his voice, with a handful of successes surrounded by an occasional clunker.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Snow, January 26, 2002

By	John J. Regan (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind (Paperback)

I'm aghast when I read the reviews of my fellow readers but then I take in account the common misperception that a short story is somehow easier to write or a lesser achievement than a novel. The truth is that short stories are more difficult to write, every sentence must punctuate, there is no breathing room. In the two novels I have read of Guterson, the endless pages of description are wonderful but can be top-heavy at times, whereas these stories are lean creations, leaving me wanting more. While it's no Pigeon Feathers, Guterson has been handed the wordsmithing baton from Updike, and the rich prose reminds me of Updike, satiating a yearn I have for quality short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed these, I liked them better than either of his novels, I hope he writes more.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a solid collection with some very strong stories, October 13, 2000

By	M. H. Bayliss "book queen" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind (Paperback)

I'm surprised how many really did NOT like his stories. It seems that after reading his novel, they wanted greater things from these early short stories. I found lots of promise in these short stories with much of the subtle style that he uses later in Snow Falling. The strongest stories in the collection involve young boys growing up in the Northwest. Although the action is lots of hunting and fishing, there is a major undercurrent of emotional tension and frustration. In some ways, these remind me of some of Hemingway's early stories, not so much in terms of style, but setting. The Hunters, for instance, brought back images of Hemingway's The Battler. If I could have given this collection 3 1/2 stars, I would have, but it's just short of 4. Still, I enjoyed almost every story in the collection. Guterson is a "show" not tell type of writer, so I suspect some readers weren't watching closely enough. There's beauty and depth in some of these stories.