Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail: Stories [Hardcover]

Bobbie Ann Mason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2001

In this remarkable book, the author of Shiloh and Other Stories, In Country, and other award-winning books gives us powerful new stories that capture the restless energy of life in contemporary America. The characters here are travelers and seekers, feeling their way toward, or away from the defining moments of their lives. They roam out into the world to England, Alaska, Texas, Saudi Arabia, or ricochet back home to Kentucky, ceaselessly searching, exploring, testing for limits.

I felt strange, says Chrissy in With Jazz, as though all my life I had been zigzagging down a wild trail to this particular place. In Charger, a teenage boy races along the interstate, seeking the father who abandoned him years before. In Rolling into Atlanta, a young woman searches for the kind of authenticity she remembers from her rural childhood. In Proper Gypsies, Nancy deals with the shock of being robbed in London. In The Funeral Side, Sandra comes home to try to fulfill her responsibilities to her family, but yearns to escape again to Alaska and the northern lights that haunt her. Writing in the spare, precise, beautifully nuanced language for which she is famous, Bobbie Ann Mason expands her art here in dramatic and illuminating fashion.

These fascinating stories bring to life surprising individuals whose journeys shine a bright light on life as it is lived by many Americans today. Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail is a beautiful book by one of America's finest writers, a book full of drama, humor, and startling insights into the timeless longings of the human heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Over the years, Mason has perfected a writerly version of method acting. As in her novels In Country and Feather Crowns, and her previous story collection, Shiloh and Other Stories, here again Mason inhabits a cast of characters who at first seem utterly defined by a world that doesn't get any larger than a small orbit of towns and country around Lexington, Ky. In the best of these 11 stories, Mason shows how deep and subtle truths can pop up anywhere and be conveyed in local dialect. Shed of two husbands and four children, the middle-aged female protagonist of "With Jazz" embarks on a casual affair with a married man called Jazz. Musing on the fruits of a long past, she feels "lost somewhere between being nice and being mean." Annie, the protagonist of "Rolling into Atlanta," works as a corporate spy, posing as a waitress, but finds herself growing attached to the headwaiter of the restaurant she's investigating. In "Three Wheeler," a potter is pestered by neighborhood boys until she one-ups them on their own turf. Not every story is so well crafted that its truths feel organic. In "Proper Gypsies," a woman borrows a friend's flat in London to regroup after a split from a lover. When the flat is burgled, the woman's feelings of wonderment and cultural displacement flare, culminating in a picturesque yet slightly contrived montage of cultural change ending with an image of a younger self seeing through a glass darkly. Mason's latest work demonstrates that the finest writers aren't afraid to think small. 11-city author tour. (On-sale: Aug. 7)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This fine new collection from the Kentucky author of Shiloh and Other Stories as well as novels like In Country reflects the sadder, wiser perspective of midlife. Only the kindest complaint applies: the stories end too soon. In "Tobrah," Jackie attends the funeral of her father, who left the family 35 years earlier, and is surprised to leave with her nearly five-year-old half-sister. She is further surprised when she makes room in her life for the child. In "Three Wheeler," independent potter Mary has moved home to what was once her uncle's house in Kentucky and grudgingly interacts with the struggling neighborhood children. Whether caring for aging parents, facing old age, or returning home, the protagonists in these stories face middle age with poignant resolve. Recommended for most libraries.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (August 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679449248
• ISBN-13: 978-0679449249
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Perspective, February 13, 2002

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail: Stories (Hardcover)

"Zigzagging Down A Wild Trail", by Bobbie Ann Mason is a great collection of short stories. She has a very unique and clever way of seeing what is presented to all of us, but is only viewed by some, and recorded by even fewer. Her stories are not about fantastically unusual events. Her characters are generally people that many will know some version of, and yet when she finishes rendering their personalities they feel as though they are new.

There are 11 stories in the collection, and the titles range from, "Tobrah, Thunder Snow, and Charger". "Tobrah", resides at one end of this range of tales, with a daughter traveling to make arrangements for her father who deserted her, only to find that with his final leaving in death he has also left her a half-sister that is younger by decades. Other than her name the child is largely a mystery, and some clues that develop are less than comforting. This story like many that are in the book are left with unfinished issues, the outcome is for the reader to decide. Many of these tales are brought to a conclusion very abruptly, a style that I usually finally annoying. This was not the case with this writer's work, and it may be because the stories themselves are so rich that even left incomplete, the writer has given her audience all they need.

Well-known events like The Gulf War are also modified so that it is the husband who has stayed behind while his wife has gone off to war. Superficially the story appears to contain much of the cliché male thinking one would expect, but pay attention to the detail, and the story is unique and very well done. The character and title of one story, "Charger", is at times humorous, and at others sad as his and his girlfriend's future are all too predictable. The characters of Charger, who is desirous of readjusting his brain via the use of his girlfriend's aunt's Prozac, is someone you will not forget easily. And his girlfriend who wears skintight snakeskin pants, "Like a pair of Boa Constrictors", and defines happiness as having lipstick on, may be the most interesting characters in the book.

Whatever your interests there is a high probability that Bobbie Ann Mason will provide several stories for you to enjoy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bobbie's been better, April 25, 2006

By 

Soccer Mom 2004 (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail: Stories (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Shiloh and Other Stories, Mason's early 1980's collection---the one that really put her on the map---is what all her other work is judged against. I've read it three times and it always feels fresh. Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail, by sad contrast, feels phoned in. Mason visits a lot of familiar territory and characters, but she has mostly failed to give these places and people heart in this go around. With a few fine exceptions---among them Tobrah, Three Wheeler, The Funeral Side, and Rolling Into Atlanta--at least half of the book feels like what a good Mason imitator might turn in. This isn't to say that they're not enjoyable to read. However, I only took a few days to read the collection and by the end, I could hardly remember what the first story was about. Some other stories start well but never find the cohesion or impact of Mason's best work. I can't help but think that she must have had some contractual obligation to whip out something really fast. If you've never read her before, my recommendation would be to start with Shiloh and Other Stories and then go from there.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some of them are really good, January 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail: Stories (Hardcover)

Mason writes about a dozen short stories in this collection. Many of them are about women and all are about people reviewing their lives, the decisions they've made, the people they've loved. The stories are involving -- the kind of story that pulls you in and when you finish the story, look up and are confused as to where you are. But, while I enjoyed many of the stories, there were a few that fell short of the brilliance of the others. Many of the stories rate 4 or 5 stars, the few I didn't enjoy brought the overall rating down for me.