cover image Best of the West

Best of the West

. Doubleday Books, $12.95 (178pp) ISBN 978-0-385-23256-2

These 13 short stories, one poem and one teleplay assembled by editor Lansdale reinvigorate one of the central images of our culturethe West. Each of these stories is an original and jointly all succeed because their writers create a sense of place, whether it is a mud flats whorehouse, a train depot, dry prairie or rickety ranch, its owner bedeviled by falling cattle prices. Additionally, hard, clear prose animates each of these narratives, wherein character is alway pitted and tested against a hostile environment either of wilderness or law. Lansdale provides a telling introduction about the state of literature and the West and inserts succinct prefaces of each writer's past accomplishments. Readers who thrive on Louis L'Amour's romances will find this anthology exciting and those who admire Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times will find it as innovative. (December 12