A Collection of Short Stories from Award-Winning Author Claire Vaye Watkins: Battleborn

Steven Z.: I particularly like the writer's depiction of the Forty-Niner's during gold rush, and the situation with young woman the man found in the desert, dying. The author shows promise. Recommended

United States on Jan 05, 2023

Marianne: Great stories, clear and compelling voice. There is a strong energy that spills from one story to the next while the subject matter is varied. I recommend

Germany on Apr 23, 2021

Nick Weber: Great book. Short stories are t h e best and Claire vVaye Watkins writes them really well. Much better than how I'm writing this rev u Ewing (but I bet she didn't write it on a kindle). But seriously, if you like all the things that I like, you will like this too.

Spain on Apr 27, 2020

Ricky Reneer: There is a bit of a formula to writing short stories, especially of the more modern variety, say last fifty years or so. You take personal details, be they landscape or family history or both, and apply them to an exploration of the human condition. That is to say, you see how humanity, as the author sees it, would react to the experiences you have had, at least in variation, and/or in the places you experienced them. The trick, which Claire Vaye Watkins has taken to quite well as I see it, is to create unique characters through which to explore this. In that way it becomes more insightful, more distant and yet more real, because we can set ourselves apart a bit as the reader, and say that while the act may be abhorrent or terrifying emotionally, that is how that character must act in order to cope. It is only later, in contemplating, that we are able to see ourselves in the humanity of it all. Watkins is able to trick us into seeing ourselves in a new light, whether it was her intent or not. This short story collection shows us a link between unique madams, murderous cults and even peafowl that explains a history not seen in academic books of that genre. She explains the history...

United States on Mar 08, 2015

T.J.Oliver: This series of short stories could depress you if it wasn't so full of tension and activity. It's John Steinbeck in brief bursts, Cannery Row in the desert, perhaps too many daughters deprived of a mother's love, and a bit racy in language and description. But definitely four-star for the psychology of a variety of dysfunctional or semi-functional relationships. I would have liked a bit more optimism.

United Kingdom on Feb 25, 2014

Lynne Perednia: One of the reasons I'm drawn to fiction set in the West is that the good stuff, the really good stuff, brings this part of the world to life. It is a vivid, harsh, beautiful place that rarely nurtures but often rewards anyone who can handle it.

Many of the characters can handle it in Claire Vaye Watkins's brilliant stories in Battleborn, which are set in Nevada and Northern California. They just don't know they can handle it until circumstances point it out to them abruptly.

That's certainly the case in "The Last Thing We Need". Thomas Grey, who lives out in the Middle of Nowhere, finds the debris of what may have been a wreck and writes to the man whose name and address he finds on some prescription bottles. Even though he has a wife and two children, he lives mostly with his thoughts. And, because the man he is writing to has not answered, Thomas Grey begins to relay his thoughts:

"This is our old joke. Like all our memories, we like to take it out once in a while and lay it flat on the kitchen table, the way my wife does with her sewing patterns, where we line up the shape of our life against that which we thought it would be by now.
"I'll tell you what...

United States on Jul 30, 2013

Richard Thomas: THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT THE NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.

There is something equally freeing and unsettling about the wide-open desert--the horizon stretching out forever is both unattainable and inspiring. In Battleborn, a collection of stories by Claire Vaye Watkins, we get to explore all aspects of Nevada, from the sad allure of a brothel to nights out in Vegas that can only lead to trouble, told in an honest and yet lyrical voice. We bear witness to those moments in time beyond which there is no return. And what comes after this tipping point--that is our salvation.

Of course the themes and ideas in this book are not limited to the American West. The concept of a parent making a mistake that can change things forever--that's a universal fear. Turn away for a second, and your child can wander out into the street, can open a screen door and simply disappear. In "The Last Thing We Need" we get to see this very moment spill out onto the page, and whether or not the father in this story meant to educate his daughter by engaging her in a moment of wanderlust, that unsettling wash of anxiety is powerful.

"When I awoke this morning there was no snow on the...

United States on Dec 31, 2012

M. G. Azevedo: I am not a huge fan of the short story genre, but this short stories exceeded my expectations.

The author, Claire Vaye Watkins, is the daughter of a member of the Charles Manson group, and the first story, "Ghosts, Cowboys," is about this topic.

There are nine other stories, all from the American west, most in the state of Nevada, about life in its small towns, deserts, Reno, and even the stories that are focused on other places (Califormia) are truly rooted in West.

Each of the stories are from different time periods and different genres, sometimes set in the old west, sometimes in today's west.

I don't want to spoil the book so just a couple of examples: the second story is about a man who writes to somwonw he's never met, only because he came across some man's belongings with an adress on them.
Another is about human beings' love lives and begins: "She will be thirty when she walks out on a man who in the end, she'll decide, didn't love her enough, though he in fact did love her, but his love wrenched something inside him, and this caused him to hurt her."

All the stories makes you want to read on, which is the mark of a great...

United Kingdom on Sep 13, 2012

salix: Engaging, effective stories about life in Nevada - pretty bleak for the most part. They're not hugely memorable and it does feel like a first collection, but one from a writer I'd want to see more from.

United Kingdom on Sep 13, 2012