Amazon.com Review
In this collection by Nevada writer David Kranes, published by the University of Nevada Press and subtitled "Nevada Stories," the hero is, unsurprisingly, Nevada itself: its barren, alien landscapes, its casinos and whorehouses, and its rootless and disaffected inhabitants. Kranes is a master of description, and his characters sometimes tend to lose themselves in the background of the territory and the mood. But in his best stories the unsettling background becomes a canvas against which the characters work out their peculiar destinies.
From Publishers Weekly
The problem with Low Tide in the Desert is all the sandbars that strand most of the 11 stories. Kranes relies too on the surreal, but the fantastic needs the support of an underlying idea?which is often not here. The most magical story is "Salvage," which concerns the resurrection of an ancient ship and its treasure, found buried in the desert. The stories are set in Nevada, many with connections to Las Vegas and casino life. Just as Las Vegas overwhelms with it illusory promise of instant riches, by the time stories such as "Who I Am Is" or "The Last Las Vegas Story" end, the narrative has evaporated like a mirage. Maybe this is the effect Kranes wanted. He can write. Many of his passages are spare, powerful Chandler-esque gems. Others are imaginative and poetic. Planes rise and fall like ashes. Expectations stack up like thunderheads. But since these images never seem to go anywhere, they are just so much curiously shaped driftwood.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
