University of Nevada Books

Most of Robert Laxalt's books incorporate some kind of personal reminiscence -- whether it's his arrestingly beautiful portraits of life in the Basque Country or his semi-autobiographical trilogy about a Basque-American family in the West -- but "Travels with My Royal" is his only forthright memoir of his childhood and life as a writer. For fifty years an inseparable mechanical friend traveled alongside him -- his portable Royal typewriter. A gift from his mother, he took it all over the world and wrote all of his books and magazine articles on it.

Born in Alturas, California, in 1923, (a place that became a ghost town not long after), Laxalt was raised in Carson City, Nevada, the second son in a family of immigrant French Basques. His father, Dominique, was a former livestock baron (a "baron of sorts") who saw his flock of over 60,000 sheep and cattle wiped out by a ranch crash and a freeze in the early 1920s. Consequently, he had to go back into the hills and build up his fortune again, slowly, living the hard life of a sheepherder, separated most of the year from his family. Economic woes marked Laxalt's childhood. He mentions how ashamed he was that his mother, who ran an otherwise respectable Basque boardinghouse, sold whiskey on the sly during Prohibition. At school he was often taunted for being the son of a bootlegger.

Yet the family eventually got on its feet again, and after spending a year in the Belgian Congo during World War II, Laxalt graduated from the University of Nevada and began to forge a successful career in journalism. His first book, "Sweet Promised Land" (1957), recounts his father Dominique's return to his birthplace in the Basque Country, St. Jean Pied-de-Port up in the French Pyrenees, fifty years after he left it, and the emotional recognition that his real home was not there, but in the hills of western Nevada. In print for over forty years, "Sweet Promised Land" was Laxalt's most resounding success, even though he confesses in "Travels with My Royal" that it was torture to write.

Laxalt wrote 16 more books (fiction and non-fiction) before his death earlier this year, and was a regular contributor to National Geographic (he discusses his long love-hate relationship with that magazine in this book). He also taught at the University of Nevada, was the director of its press, and helped found the Basque Studies Program there. Anyone interested in the Basques will soon learn that Laxalt has done more than probably any other writer to help us understand their world.

If you're not already familiar with Laxalt's books, read a few first. Here he talks about how works like "Sweet Promised Land" and "In a Hundred Graves" came about, and if you haven't read them, some of it will go over your head.

I had the pleasure of taking a poetry workshop from Moya Cannon in Allihies, Cty. Cork, Ireland in the summer of 1999 and was truly inspired by her work. "The Parchment Boat" draws its name from the mendicant priests and monks who made small rafts from animal skins and set off on the ocean throughout Ireland and the British Isles to spread the gospel. Similarly, Cannon explores the everyday, shared experiences that draw us together. She, seemingly effortlessly, makes us relate to those ancient monks, a breastfeeding mother, the mythic Tristan and Isolde. She finds wisdom in something as mundane as scrubbing hazelnuts, and her work is at once modern and timeless.

As she says in "Hunter's Moon": "There are perhaps no accidents/ no coincidences / When we stumble against people, books, rare moments / Out of time / These are illuminations." Moya Cannon's poetry is one of those illuminations. The simplicity, directness, and power of her words will surely endure this age.

In this book William Fox writes about maps, the Great Basin desert, Native American Rock Art, ecology, ranchers, the many dimensions of water in the desert, Michael Heizer's landscape projects and history. The book is unique for the tone he strikes and the desert that he writes about. This is a detailed and articulate book that never bogs down.

He writes with a naturalist's eye and a poet's heart. The blurb on the dust jacket compares his writing to Barry Lopez. The comparison is apt and Fox has put together something here I will remember and re-read for a long time to come. He examines why deserts charm us and explores the Great Basin on foot and with eloquence. I loved it from the Introduction to the detailed Bibliography at the end. Read it!

A wonderful collection of short stories with a common character - a liar who is searching for his way in the world. You can't help but feel incredible compassion and hope.

Will James, in two dozen self-illustrated books and scores of articles, created one of the most popular and probably last cowboy legends of the American West. James was
an expert at taking fact and fantasy, legend and lore, and combining them to create a cowboy story people could lose themselves in.

Sadly though, James's success in creating a happy, literary fantasy for children and adults couldn't extend to himself. A victim of the very articles, books, and drawings that
made him famous, James's immense pop ularity threatened to topple the greatest James story of all-the story of his life.

Author Anthony Amaral, a great admirer of James and the cowboy way of life, takes a literary journey to explain the great rise and even greater fall of Joseph-Ernest
Dufault-the man who created and lived the life of Will James

Sherman E. Easttom, the camp committee chairman at the Weedpatch Camp in the era around the first half of 1936, was introduced to John Steinbeck at The Arvin Sanitary Camp by Tom Collins.Numerous biographers have said Steinbeck used the family of Sherman E. Easttom as the model for the Joad Family as portrayed in the Steinbeck Novel THE GRAPES OF WRATH, 1939. What Ms.Loftis misrepresented in her book was that Sherman E. Easttom wrote a letter to Paul Taylor, in regards to the democratic camper goverment which was set up by either the Farm Security Administration or its predecessor agency which planned and built the first two Sanitary Units in 1935 the first in Marysville, CA and the second in Arvin, CA. Ms. Loftis, erroneously claims to have referenced a source she found somewhere in the National Archives, to the effect that Sherman E. Easttom wrote a letter to Paul Taylor, a higher up at the Farm Security Administration headquarters in San Fancisco,CA. Being the grandson of Sherman E. Easttom, it is common knowledge in the Easttom Family that Sherman E. Easttom could not read or write and was color blind.I do not slight Anne Loftis for using my grandfather's name, however I do mind the misinformation that is being disseminated by writers who have the occasion to run across Sherman E. Easttom's role in the writing by Steinbeck of THE GRAPES OF WRATH,1939. Ms. Loftis corroborated with the well known Steinbeck biographer, Jackson J. Benson in 1980 on a piece JOHN STEINBECK AND FARM LABOR UNIONIZATION; THE BACKGROUND OF IN DUIOUS BATTLE, by Benson and Anne Loftis, American Literature, 52 (May 1980): 194-223. Mr Benson also published his well reviewed book, THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF JOHN STEINBECK, WRITER (New York: Viking, 1984; London: Heinemann, 1984).In this book which which has been heralded as the definitive "authorized biography" of John Steinbeck as it was indeed cleared by the Steinbeck Family and thus offered Benson an entree into the secretive life of Steinbeck and his friends. Benson disseminated misinformation about Sherman E. Easttom and went further to name Easttom's son, namely, Sammie F. Eastton, (note there was variation in the family as to the exact spelling of the surname) as a "...fugitve from the law and hiding out in Lamont." Benson and Anne Loftis engaged in the same type of name dropping in the writing of ,THE BACKGROUND OF "IN DUBIOUS BATTLE". I would remind one that the use of the word "fugitive" connotes a fleeing from or flight from justice. My Uncle whom Benson claimed was the model for Tom Joad was only 17 years old in the summer of 1936 when the talks between Sherman E. Easttom and John Steinbeck took place. My Uncle could not have been a "fugitive" in any common understanding of the use of the word , because he was a juvenile at the time Benson claims he was a "...fugitive from the law". Again I bear no ill will to any of the Steinbeck researchers, but only wish to bring forward the factual account according to the Easttom Family.

A compassionate and realistic look(very real) of life on the mean streets of Las Vegas. Detailed information on about every component that has created this situation, from city policy to drug abuse. Precise statistical figures give an accurate account of this blight. Definitely a rich resource on the topic. The author shares his experience with you, making this an easy book to read, albeit disturbing.

Written by American West studies specialist Kristen M. McAndrews (Prof. of English, University of Hawai'i at Manoa), Wrangling Women: Humor and Gender in the American West is a unique look at a mountain community of women in Winthrop, Washington who run a western-theme town and work as ranchers, trail guides, horse trainers and packers. Caught in an unusual crux where they have to keep alive gender stereotypes for the sake of a tourist-based economy yet apply the same levels of authority and expertise as their male counterparts, these resourceful "wrangling women" apply humor and language as useful tools for accomplishing the precarious balancing act. A delightful exploration of gender studies, stereotypes, and human resourcefulness, Wrangling Women frequently quotes the women it studies, allowing the reader to partake in both scholarly observation and the visceral feel of being there. A lively and entertaining treatise.

Boy, I was a huge UNLV fan while Tark was there, and I loved that team that beat Duke by 30 in the finals. Thus, I bought the book, and I enjoyed it. In virtually every chapter, there is a funny story or a simply outrageous story that I'm sure is true. Tark tells his story, and he seems to hold nothing back. Tark is truly unique.

My problem with the book is the Tark portrays himself as a "victim" of some sort of witch-hunt by the NCAA. I've no doubt that the NCAA was unfair-grossly unfair-to Tark. Yet I grow weary of self-proclaimed "victims."

Yet I suggest you buy it and read it. You'll laugh because it is funny.

And if you were a huge UNLV fan like I was, it will bring back some good memories.

Remember the incredible defense that Stacey Augmon played? If not, this book will bring back memories such as Stacey, et al.

Jerry Tarkanian seems to be a decent, likeable guy, evidenced by both his autobiography's narrative voice, and the "shark tales" inside. Tark is laid-back, self-deprecating, funny, and respectful in his tone and delivery, and his life's story shows he could get along with of all kinds of people, and was a valuable friend to have: everyone is a "good guy", with some rare exceptions, and Tark wanted to coach all of the kids and take all the adults out for a meal and a round of drinks.

Tark's larger than life, yet down-home, blue-collar personality developed by rising from a difficult home life (tough Armenian background, father died at 10, little money) to earn a series of coaching successes virtually right out of the gate- the guy never had a losing season at any level, and boasts an overall career record of 988-228 (.813). And coaching basketball was not originally a noble calling for Tark- it instead represented sort of a path of least resistance for an athletic guy whose grades were mediocre and who didn't want a desk job.

Coach's genius lies in recruiting, and most of the book recounts his amusing and clever escapades trying to bring talent to his schools. Tark recognized early on to utilize junior colleges to his advantage, to target niche players, and to embrace black athletes that other schools sadly (and suicidally) avoided during the 1960s. He visited kids and their families at their homes, regardless of how tough the neighborhoods were. He wasn't easily dissuaded by a kid's poor grades or legal troubles, without first assessing his character and potential. He was the consummate Las Vegas host, and had the whole city at his disposal (including, to a degree, Sinatra, who actually made a couple of recruiting visits for Tark), and could convincingly show visitors the kind of time they could expect to have by playing for UNLV. His list of contacts throughout the US was outstanding - he had high school coaches and scouts everywhere feeding him guys, and all the right jucos to park them in if they needed to cool their heels first.

Of course, Tark had his scrapes with the NCAA, and seemed unfairly targeted, particularly once recruiting rules got tougher. He was open and honest about his troubles- and his disdain for the NCAA investigators- and didn't seem to be whitewashing events. For one, he won a $2.5 million settlement against the NCAA, as retribution for their misguided hyper-vigilance of his program. And he also is forthcoming about where he technically bent the rules. He gives the impression that overstepping NCAA boundaries while recruiting (including, for instance, buying a kid a sandwich or magazine from your own pocket) is like speeding or web-surfing at work: everyone does it to at least a minor extent, and you only get caught by flagrantly abusing the system, or because someone with ulterior motives is paying too close attention to the little stuff. It seemed to be the latter for Tark, but a fighting spirit and the loyalty he inspired in those around him meant the system never had him beat.

I am a long time basketball fan, especially college BB. I remeber all the names the Tark mentions in the book and it was very enjoyable to read, I couldn't put it down. I loved the "inside" information the book gives as the average fan doesn't always know about what really goes on. I am huge Al McGuire fan so that was fun also. I would urge any basketball fan to buy this book.

Great book. I was in LV, NV during Tark's tenure at UNLV. Tark originally got crosswise with the NCAA when he criticized them in his basketball column at Long Beach State. The NCAA never let go after that. UNLV administration unfortunately bought into the argument that a school can either be academically or athletically based and never understood the vision of a powerful synergistic relationship (i.e. USC, Notre Dame, TX, etc., etc.). The administration and anti-Tark boosters basically invited the NCAA in for an audit that took years. The end result was a severely truncated basketball dynasty and a huge hit in academic and adminstrative credibilty from UNLV's President Maxson on down. UNLV has not achieved significant academic standing and and has never recovered athletically. However, Tark is $2,000,000.00 richer secondary to prevailing over the NCAA in a court of law, in addition to his 1990 NCAA basketball court championship.

I have not and will not bother to read this book, as I would not trust any of the facts. As an example, Wetzel recently (Yahoo!, 4/2/06) published an article bashing the UCLA basketball program. The entire basis for this was a "quote" that Wetzel attributes to Bill Walton. Nothing could be further from thr truth!

In his article, he states the quote was written by Walton ("Those quotes come from none other than Bill Walton, maybe the greatest Bruin of them all, in his 1978 book `On the Road with the Portland Trailblazers'"). This is false. The book was written by Jack Scott. In the Author's Note, Scott wrote: "Bill never asked to read even one page of the manuscript - never mind the entire manuscript - before it went to the printer. Consequently, I am solely responsible for the book's content. You should not automatically assume that Bill agrees with all of the opinions I express throughout the book..."

There are numerous other examples. When called on his error, Wetzel indicated that HE DID NOT EVEN HAVE A COPY OF THE BOOK he quotes, so could not confirm or deny the error!! Horrifying! Despite being called out, he has never made a correction to the story nor printed any retractions.

He is an untrustworthy writer, and clearly makes up and misrepresents the facts to sell his product.

BEWARE!

"Gunning for Ho: Vietnam Stories," is one of those brilliant works of fiction that comes around once in a while to provoke a bit of reflection on the experience of war.
H. Lee Barnes draws upon his first-hand experiences in Vietnam to stitch together a compelling work of literature that begs to be read over and over again.
The stories are perfectly balanced with a combination of suspense, comedy, mystery and anguish all wrapped into a single package.
The world is full of warm-and-fuzzy books for those who need them and this book does not pretend to be one. But if your willing to strap on a Y-Chromosome and enjoy a succinct work of military fiction, then behold: "Gunning for Ho: Vietnam Stories."
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, AUTHORS DESERVE YOUR OPINIONS TOO.

There are some fine times in Gunning for Ho. My personal favorites are "A Lovely Day..." and the wonderfully mystic and deep "Stonehands..." This gives a glimpse into the author's not wanting to take responsibility for anything too heavy, though he certainly has and will in the future. It's like a fairy tale dream that can't come true. However the story has real merit and is wonderful.

The characters and stories are real and tragic. The Cat in the Cage horrified me. Here the writer actually got in touch with his sensitive more human side and touched me greatly.

However through the book, there is a distance between the author and his characters. As though he doesn't want to get too close. This is so blatant, I found myself not caring very much for them either.

More heart, more soul, more empathy, should be employed in this man's work. It goes without saying he is a superb writer. He simply needs to open himself up to his characters and likewise, he needs to open his characters up as well.

That sort of cutting off of emotions, is part of military training and being in a war, I suppose. But that war is over. A larger focus on the depth of emotion for writer and characters is what is needed.

H. Lee Barnes' collection of stories, Gunning For Ho, need not be looked at as just "Vietnam stories", rather they are stories of the soul, of man, of morality, and of America, uniquely America. This is a writer who doesn't shy away from wit or horror (often in the same paragraph, the same sentence) when describing the wars we fight with ourselves and the wars we fight with the enemy. A powerful, moving reminder that what matters is often not what is written on the page, but what we as readers take with us, to last a lifetime. Nothing short of brilliant.

I am not from Las Vegas, nor a member of any writers' group nor Veterans of Viet Nam group. Neither am I even an acquaintance of H. Lee Barnes, but I know a little about the Ashau, Khe Sahn, Laos, and certain other sites of pertinence. I have also read a considerable number of books on or about that war, and have studied and taught literature for much longer than I care to admit. It would be wrong to compare Gunning for Ho with All Quiet on the Western Front, The Red Badge of Courage, or A Farewell to Arms, because Barnes' collection of stories isn't a novel. It does, however, achieve artistic consonance with them in ways Melville described as providing the universal thump of truth "heard the circle round." Free of the topical politics so common to most books coming out of that now ancient war but full of the true relevance of the interior politics related to human survival in apocryphal circumstances, these stories achieve a gripping poignancy which connects the author's internal experience to the essence of human existence across all time. There is pathos, but it is ameliorated with scintillating humor; there is dignity and honor, but it is balanced by the inevitableness of human fallibility; there are terror and cowardice but they coexist with quiet but determined heroism of the first and lesser orders. To Barnes' credit, all of these elements come together in his tales as natural portrayals of the human spirit in adversity, told quietly, yet with astounding brilliance. He lets us see the pervading haze created by carpet bombing, smell the funkiness of the tropical jungle adulterated by the stink of rotting corpses, and hear the sounds of the unspoken in superbly handled dialogue. This is without doubt the best book I've yet read about the way it was thirty-odd years ago-and still is today, as it was for Jake Barnes in the 20s. Any serious student of literature or anyone with an interest in late 20th century America and the American psyche should read this book.

Despite having been born in the latter years of the Vietnam War, and not having read deeply in the field, I am confident this collection of six short stories and a novella by a former Green Beret, is destined to be a classic of Vietnam War fiction. Destined because they resound with the truth--and aren't really concerned with making any political statement. Barnes's stories tell you about the young men who went off to war in an alien landscape, and how they--and those they left behind--were transformed forever. The first three stories are thematically joined by strong surreal elements that speak to the wider confusion and disorientation felt by many who served. More like Kafka than Conrad. The fourth and fifth stories are more straightforward tales of aftermath and picking up the pieces. I found the novella ("Tunnel Rat") to be somewhat more elusive than the stories, and less forceful. It may take a re-reading or two to really get at it. The final (and title) story is a direct descendant of Heart of Darkness, and succeeds in spite of traveling that well-worn path. As a whole, this collection is a testament to the humanity of the men who went to Vietnam.