The One Inside

Richly complex. . . . Minutely observed. . . . A sharp-eyed distillation of the themes that have preoccupied him throughout his career. -The New York Times A writer who has already established himself as an essential modern American playwright. . . . Compelling. . . . Magnetic. -Chicago Tribune [The narrator] seeks authenticity, even as he creates art and artifice as a métier. Masculinity and its perils, the primitive drama of sibling and father-son rivalry, are the wellsprings of Shepard's work. -The New York Times Book Review Moving . . . [Shepard is] remarkably successful at rendering his long career of storytelling in relief. -Santa Fe New Mexican Shepard is a master of conflicting emotions and haunting regrets, and-graced with a forward by Patti Smith-this is a ravishing tale of deep-dark cosmic humor, complex tragedy, and self-inflicted exile. -Booklist (starred review) Meditative and valedictory. . . . Since this is Shepard, the protagonist is riding a sharp and polished knife's edge as he muses. . . . Memories of his father, especially during wartime; of his father's girlfriend, with whom he also became involved (with tragic consequences); and of the vibrant American landscape inform the narrative. -Library Journal Vivid. . . . Following a poignant foreword by Patti Smith, each successive chapter of the novel flits among times and forms. . . . Striking and memorable, illustrative of what makes Shepard's work so arresting on the screen and the page. -Publishers Weekly An elegiac amble through blowing dust and greasy spoons, the soundtrack the whine of truck engines and the howl of coyotes. . . . At turns, Shepard's story morphs from novel, with recurring characters and structured narrative, into prose poem, with lysergic flashes of brilliance and amphetamine stutters. . . . Atmospheric and precisely observed, very much of a piece with Shepard's other work. -Kirkus Reviews