The Signal

Back in olden days, before we started worrying about the survival of novels, we used to worry about the survival of novels for men. But that battle was lost so long ago that we should declare the field a national park and open a visitors' center (Look, kids -- Norman Mailer published right on this s......more

I must confess a soft spot for this book, having backpacked some of the same territory that estranged couple Mack and Vonnie traverse in this short and (somewhat) sweet novel. Carlson does a wonderful job of creating a sense of place and giving the reader enough technical jargon to put them squarely......more

This one is a one day read, but very engrossing. Not your typical cowboy story by a long shot! The author has done several short story collections, so this is properly a novella. The sparse language makes the plot twists all the more surprising, sort of like finding that hidden canyon on the long hi......more

What an unusual story! I think I enjoyed it but I'm left with this feeling like everything isn't quite resolved so I'm not actually sure. It seems to be the story of a man searching for redemption. I'm all for that. Most of the characters are pretty solid and interesting. Vonnie is a different story.......more