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More copies of this ISBN:Five Skies: A Novelby Ron Carlson
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"Carlson's focus is transporting, absorbing. It shakes you from stupor, strips you down. He understands that most of us live in a world of enervating crap....And Five Skies offers a longed-for blueprint of the antidote....We agree when Carlson describes civilization as 'a hundred layers of ten thousand decisions, only a few of them even interesting.' The men leave Five Skies the better for it. So do we." Alison Glock, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Award-winning short story writer Ron Carlson delivers a stirring novel about three men confronting their pasts and their purpose.
Beloved story writer Ron Carlson's first novel in thirty years, Five Skies is the story of three men gathered high in the Rocky Mountains for a construction project that is to last the summer. Having participated in a spectacular betrayal in Los Angeles, the giant, silent Arthur Key drifts into work as a carpenter in southern Idaho. Here he is hired, along with the shiftless and charming Ronnie Panelli, to build a stunt ramp beside a cavernous void. The two will be led by Darwin Gallegos, the foreman of the local ranch who is filled with a primeval rage at God, at man, at life. As they endeavor upon this simple, grand project, the three reveal themselves in cautiously resonant, profound ways. And in a voice of striking intimacy and grace, Carlson's novel reveals itself as a story of biblical, almost spiritual force. A bellwether return from one of our greatest craftsmen, Five Skies is sure to be one of the most praised and cherished novels of the year. Review:"Two stoics and a teenage misanthrope are brought together in Idaho's Rocky Mountains to build a ramp to nowhere in Carlson's first novel in 25 years, a tour de force of grief, atonement and the cost of loyalty. Darwin Gallegos, spiritually bereft after the sudden death of his wife, is hired for one last job at Rio Difficulto, the sprawling ranch where he had lived and worked for years. The job: construct a motorcycle ramp that will launch a daredevil across a gorge (the event is to be taped and bring in a pile of money). Darwin hires for the job drifters Arthur Key, a large and quiet man hiding from his recent past, and Ronnie Panelli, a wiry teenager on the lam from minor criminal mischief. As the men work from late spring through summer, their wounds come slowly to light: the seething fury that took root in Darwin after his wife died; Arthur's career as the go-to Hollywood stunt engineer that he abandoned after betraying his guileless brother; and Ronnie's short lifetime of failure, atoned for as he learns the carpentry trade. Carlson writes with uncommon precision, and this return to long-form fiction after four well-received story collections is stunning." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:"What is the main element of fiction aimed primarily at men? It's certainly not love. In such traditionally masculine genres as private eye mysteries, techno-thrillers, paperback adventure novels, westerns and 'hard' science fiction, there is one common theme: 'Men at Work.' These are all books about guys going about their jobs and doing them well, despite personal sorrows or enemy action. After all,... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review)
Review:"[A] note-perfect novel that will challenge and reward all who care about literary fiction." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review:"A thinking man's novel, containing all the rugged elements of Western allure." Kirkus Reviews
Review:"Five Skies is multilayered, rich with metaphors, which some may interpret biblically; either way, readers will find Carlson's experiences on the page to be both moving and illuminating." St. Petersburg Times
Review:"With a discerning feel for the connection between place and character, Carlson gradually reveals what makes each man tick and his relationship to the others as they work side by side over a single summer. Five Skies is a haunting tale of loss and redemption." Denver Post
Review:"A beautiful novel, as unique and insular as the quiet and powerful landscape it inhabits, and as braided with hope and despair, and hope again, as are the lives of the three men at its center." Rick Bass
Review:"In Five Skies Ron Carlson has fashioned such a moving and elemental meditation on every man's struggle toward family, toward the embrace of his individual soul, that, by its end, I found my appreciation for both grief and redemption to be profoundly altered. Here is a fine and gracefully rendered novel." Mark Spragg, author of An Unfinished Life
Review:"Five Skies is a novel written with feeling by an obvious pro. I wish, however, that Carlson had allowed his readers a few dramatic thrills." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review:"[A] novel of exquisite richness and pared-down elegance, in which few words are wasted but volumes of wisdom are conveyed." BookReporter.com
Review:"This is a simply told, quietly moving tale yet one that, in its use of time, nature, and the seasonal round, carries an archetypal resonance. Recommended." Library Journal
Synopsis:Award-winning short story writer Carlson's first novel in 30 years delivers a stirring tale about three men confronting their pasts and their purpose. About the AuthorRon Carlson is the award-winning author of four story collections, including At the Jim Bridger and The Hotel Eden, two novels, and a young adult novel. His stories appear regularly in Harper's, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Playboy, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He is the director of the MFA creative writing program at the University of California, Irvine. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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