Wyoming [Hardcover]

Barry Gifford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 12, 2000

" A subtle, impeccably rendered new novel from one of America's most distinctive writers.

A woman and her young son are traveling together by car through the southern and midwestern United States in the mid-to-late 1950s. As the mother drives, she and the boy, Roy, talk about their lives, their disappointments, and their dreams. "Wyoming" exists as a state of mind rather than an actual place, a place neither the boy nor his mother have ever been, an idyll where the two of them can live an untroubled life. Told entirely in dialogue, the story of Roy and his mother traverses both real and imaginary states of being, on a tour through an uncertain but hopeful landscape of longing and myth. As Roy's mother tells him, "Everybody needs Wyoming."

Combining a spare and elegant style with profound and clear-eyed feeling, Wyoming is the most sensitive and touching work of Barry Gifford's brilliant career."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prolific novelist (Wild at Heart) and screenwriter (Lost Highway) Gifford delivers a sedate story written almost entirely in meandering dialogue between a mother and her precocious nine- year-old son, Roy. The book takes place in the mid-1950s as Kitty and Roy drive across the American South and Midwest. Traveling from place to placeDrarely leaving the carDthey try to pass time in idle, soft-focus banter about their hopes and disappointments, occasionally musing about such big topics as fate, personal loss, divorce, death and the soul. The background unfolds: Kitty has left Roy's dishonest father, whose health is failing, while Roy craves reassurances that both parents still love him. But content mirrors form in that, just as the two never arrive at any final destination, their desultory conversations rarely resolve issues or discover anything new; and the novel's brief, episodic chapters ensure that no subject is dealt with profoundly or in full. Action is generally light (a train passes, a road curves, a hotel room is dirty), but even when more dramatic events happen (i.e., Roy's father takes a turn for the worse), the voices of mother and son are sometimes indistinguishable and their reminiscences and longings are so vague and personal as to be irrelevant. The pair seem lost, both on their journey and in lax, unremarkable conversation, leaving the reader to wonder why Gifford won't give them a bit more gas, a few more twists in the road and, above all, some direction. Line drawings by Gifford throughout. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...that Gifford forges these characters almost entirely put of dialogue makes their affecting humanity doubly impressive..." -- New

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing; 1st edition (July 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155970523X
• ISBN-13: 978-1559705233
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,970,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Road Trip of the Mind", January 10, 2001

By 

Joseph J. Hanssen "Joe" (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wyoming (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book because of all the hope and sensitivity it presented in its short 127 pages. It's one of the most touching stories I have read in a long while. It was a nice change. "Wyoming" tells the story of a mother and her young 9 year old son, Roy, who travel together by car through the south and mid-west United States during the 1950's. There trip to "Wyoming" exists as a state of mind rather than an actual place. The story is told entirely in dialogue, where they both discuss their lives, hopes and dreams.

I thought the questions the son asks on the trip were the same type all children ask when we are young, inquisitive, and innocent. We view the world at that age as a wonderful place full of surprises and many mysteries.. The author brought this out in little Roy in a wonderful way. This mother and son were two people you would really want to know. When Roy asks questions like: "Mom, when birds die, what happens to their souls?" or "What would happen if there was no sun?" and "Mom, after I die I want to come back as a flamingo" who could not love this little boy? For the short time it takes to read this wonderful story, it's more than worth the effort. Highly recommended!

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Journeys in the heart, July 25, 2000

By 

Ron Franscell, Author of 'Sourtoe Cocktail Club' - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wyoming (Hardcover)

The state in the title of Barry Gifford's "Wyoming" is not the Cowboy State, but a state of mind. To the mother and son traveling together by car in the 1950s -- not on one trip but a series of trips over several years -- Wyoming represents sanctuary. It's a place where one can hide and never be found, where horses run in the open country and cool breezes blow, a good place to have a dog.

But they never go. Instead, Roy and his mother Kitty stick to the main roads, exploring swamps, roach-infested motels, Civil War graveyards and greasy spoons on the Gulf Coast. The purposes of their desultory journeys are not always clear, sometimes hurtling toward a shabby liaison, sometimes unfolding in the slow aimlessness of "concertina locomotion." The reader seldom knows the real destination, although the route always runs through an ambiguous landscape of lost dreams and poignant hopes.

The 34 vignettes sketch the bare outlines of Roy and Kitty, abandoned in Florida by an absent father with apparent mob ties. Roy dreams of being a baseball player, or an architect, or a fisherman; Kitty dreams of survival. *How* mother and son survive is never known, although the reader can deduce that Kitty occasionally leaves their various motel rooms at night.

The rhythms of the conversation are remarkably true and, although a story told completely in dialogue runs a very narrow gauge, the talk is keen and occasionally deeply poetic, such as this moment when young Roy talks about the human spirit:

"Your soul flies away like a crow when you die and hides in a cloud. When it rains that means the clouds are full of souls and some of 'em are squeezed out. Rain is the dead souls there's no more room for in heaven."

"Did Nanny tell you this, Roy?"

"No, it's just something I thought."

"Baby, there's no way I'll ever think about rain the same way again."

In the end, Roy and his mother speed past too quickly. We see them for a moment, and they are gone. No time for questions and, although it appears they never get to Wyoming, the reader is left hoping -- not knowing -- they found a place to land.