Letting Loose the Hounds [Paperback]

Brady Udall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

Exploding with an unsettling exuberance, Brady Udall's stories traverse a geography of lost love, fragmented lives, and satisfying revenge. Shimmering with life, these eleven stories literally let loose--and leave readers with a raw yet romantic vision of the men and women in today's still-wild West Author publicity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The West is a pretty grim place to live, judging by the characters who populate Brady Udall's collection of short stories, Letting Loose the Hounds. Misfits, miscreants and outcasts all, his heroes stumble miserably through a desert landscape of "petrified wood and dinosaur bones," of failed marriages, dysfunctional families and their own aching loneliness in search of reconnection to the world they've lost.

What redeems this collection, and often the characters as well, is Mr. Udall's trenchant humor and sharp appreciation for the ridiculous. No one is more aware of the absurdity of his situation than the main character of "Midnight Raid" who is caught red-handed breaking into his ex-wife's house with a pygmy goat under his arm. In "Vernon" the narrator sees the irony in returning to his dead-end hometown after a semester of college: "I liked college . . . Just the idea made me ridiculously happy . . . But I had this nervous feeling I couldn't get rid of, like something in the bottom of my gut slowly eating at my insides . . . I came back to Vernon to stay." The only recourse for these lost souls are small, often funny, always sad acts of rebellion. Mr. Udall's West might not be a great place to live, but in Letting Loose the Hounds it makes for a compelling visit. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In most of the 11 stories of Udall's gritty debut, narrators reconstruct the genesis of their current woes and seize-or at least seek-control of their lives in moments of decisive, often dramatic action. In "Midnight Raid," a man's late-night visit to his ex-wife's new house a year after their divorce culminates in a confrontation with his former spouse and her new husband in which the narrator's desperate attempt to avenge his suffering and assuage his loss of love is both funny and achingly sad. In the title story (the only one that isn't a first-person narrative), a husband returns home after months hunting in the mountains to find that his wife has abandoned him. Recalling these recent events whips him into a rage and provokes even more outrageous actions. Some stories do falter: the disastrous road trip of "The Opposite of Loneliness" ends with the hodgepodge cast too neatly united; in "Junk Court," a young man's desire to connect himself to the world plays itself out in a forced, disingenuous relationship with a disabled woman. Most of the time, however, Udall articulates the sorrow and humor of his characters' situations so well that their bellowing displays of bravado do provide a catharsis of sorts. Udall clearly understands the truth abut punching walls: it won't make problems go away, but it sometimes feels awfully good. Author tour. (Jan.) FYI: Udall, whose stories have appeared in GQ, the Paris Review, Playboy and Story, is a James Michener Fellow.
Copyright 1996 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: 224 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671017020
• ISBN-13: 978-0671017026
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,455,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brady Udall is the author of "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint," "Letting Loose the Hounds," and "The Lonely Polygamist." His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Esquire, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Boise, Idaho.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars read this book, March 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Letting Loose the Hounds (Paperback)

The best book of short stories I have ever read. If you like Thom Jones, Denis Johnson or T.C. Boyle, then give this book a shot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where it all started and the seeds were planted!, August 28, 2010

By 

Siriam (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Letting Loose the Hounds (Paperback)

I read this 1997 published book immediately after reading the subsequent first novel by Brady Udall ("The miracle life of Edgar Mint") and have now revisited it again after reading his latest novel ("The lonely polygamist").

All eleven short stories were written before either novel and many of them had been published in various magazines. They are clear evidence that Udall was already a unique talent and fast developing young writer. With his Arizona and Utah new West settings and casts of Mormons, Indians and manual workers with stories seen through the eyes of children, men and women on life's events as caught in these harsh and isolated environments, he was already playing to many of the themes that would develop in his two subsequent novels.

As with many great short story writers such as my own favourite Bernard Mac Laverty, the short story medium does not allow for padding or wasted words in getting the story or theme across. Udall does not fail in this objective and many stories like the landscape they describe are hard and harsh (my personal favourite simply because it is so offbeat being "Snake" about catching a snake that intrudes into a family homestead) but all display a wry humour and keen eye on what most counts in conveying the story, whether describing the character or the landscape.

Well worth reading even if your entry point was his later novels.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, true wit, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories (Hardcover)

One of the best story collections I've read. All the pieces fit--though some of them have been scattered quite far, Udall has confidently traipsed out to the edges and brought them back.