Recommendations for Fiction Similar to Frank Stanford's Poetry
February 25, 2021 6:06 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend fiction (bonus points for short stories) that potentially gives off the same (or at least a similar) vibe as Frank Stanford's poetry?
A few years ago I stumbled upon Frank Stanford's poetry and became obsessed. I adore the "down-by-the-river during the late-summer golden hour where everything sings with possibility but there's danger lurking in the shadows" feeling it gives me.
I know Stanford himself has a collection of short stories, but it sadly doesn't hold the same magic as his poetry.
Grit-lit kind of stuff, while I do enjoy it and while it has some overlap with this particular feeling I'm desiring, is too gritty.
If my description above is too vague, I guess I'm looking for fiction that isn't necessarily youthful, but has that kind of naive wonder and sense of freedom that childhood has, and that blind fearlessness. It will probably be set in the woods/down by the creek, or generally rural areas/small towns, during the dog days where everything feels thick and sticky and the cicadas are buzzing and maybe someone has a bowie knife sliding around on the floorboards of their rusty Ford truck. That kind of vibe. Rock Springs by Richard Ford almost fits, but not quite. It doesn't have that golden hour glow to it, if that makes sense.
Thank you!
A few years ago I stumbled upon Frank Stanford's poetry and became obsessed. I adore the "down-by-the-river during the late-summer golden hour where everything sings with possibility but there's danger lurking in the shadows" feeling it gives me.
I know Stanford himself has a collection of short stories, but it sadly doesn't hold the same magic as his poetry.
Grit-lit kind of stuff, while I do enjoy it and while it has some overlap with this particular feeling I'm desiring, is too gritty.
If my description above is too vague, I guess I'm looking for fiction that isn't necessarily youthful, but has that kind of naive wonder and sense of freedom that childhood has, and that blind fearlessness. It will probably be set in the woods/down by the creek, or generally rural areas/small towns, during the dog days where everything feels thick and sticky and the cicadas are buzzing and maybe someone has a bowie knife sliding around on the floorboards of their rusty Ford truck. That kind of vibe. Rock Springs by Richard Ford almost fits, but not quite. It doesn't have that golden hour glow to it, if that makes sense.
Thank you!
Rainbow Valley, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is about Anne/Gilbert's children, set in the early 1900s but written just after WW1, which affects the whole family (in Rilla of Ingleside). Rainbow Valley is basically a nostalgia novel about exactly that summer golden hour; I think there is an passage that explicitly calls out the looming shadow of war.
posted by basalganglia at 9:46 AM on February 25, 2021
posted by basalganglia at 9:46 AM on February 25, 2021
Sounds like you want Ron Carlson. I started with At the Jim Bridger.
posted by rw at 10:13 AM on February 26, 2021
posted by rw at 10:13 AM on February 26, 2021
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- Ray Bradbury short stories - there are several with this feel to me - kids in an endless summer but with underlying darkness
- John Crowley's AEgypt - this book goes to a lot of different moods, but the first section hits a lot of these notes to me - getting stuck in a small town in summer and getting drawn into the life of the place and its mysteries.
posted by crocomancer at 6:27 AM on February 25, 2021