Desierto: Memories of the Future

Customer Reviews:

The writer's desert.......1999-04-14

The writer's impression of the desert and the impressions it leaves on him. It is written in a style both chilling and lyrical, and will haunt the reader for a long time.

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IDEAL VIEW MEET IMPURE WORLD
Good evocative writing

Battles in the Desert and Other Stories
Jose Emilio Pacheco , and Katherine Silver
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0811210197

Customer Reviews:

IDEAL VIEW MEET IMPURE WORLD.......2005-06-09

Battles in the Desert is a short but powerful collection of short stories by a Mexican writer that I believe needs more exposure in America. The stories in this book mainly deal with the conflicts that children or young adults have with the world they will have to grow up in. For example, in the title story, a young man falls in love with his classmate's mother, whose declaration of love leads to unforseen and negative results, not because of his feelings, but because of the prejudices of his neighborhood. That's really what this collection is about. The main character of each has an almost pure emotion of love for someone but when this feeling is brought out in the open, such as in "The Pleasure Principle", in which two young lovers are kept apart by circumstances, either a betrayal or the people around them drive a wedge into their bliss. Pacheco also focuses on the plight of the poor in "The Sunken Park" in which a boy is payed by his aunt to take her beloved cat to the vet to be put to sleep for 20 pesos. Him and his friend decide to kill the cat themselves and spend the money on food. These stories are quite touching and written very realistically in a masterful way.

Good evocative writing.......2001-02-07

In Mexico City, there is a big and very traditional neighborhood, where wealthy people lived decades ago, and now is a middle-class place, with nice streets, restaurants, museums, ann bookstores. It was there that the protagonist of this short novel was born. It is a remembrance of childhood. The narrator retells the story of his infatuation with the young and attractive mother of one of his classmates, who is also the mistress of a politician. One day he skips school and visits her, and he delcares his love for her. The visit is known of in the community, and sparks a small scandal. Years later, he will find an ex-classmate and find out what happened to her. It is a good story, full of nostalgia for Mexico City in the 30's.

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Thank you for playing, please try again later
Epitaph to a Great Writer
Another treasure of the Southwest is found ... J. Bishop!
A superb, well-researched analysis of Edward Abbey.

Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist
James Bishop
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0689121954

Book Description

Through Abbey's own writings and personal papers, as well as interviews with friends and acquaintances, Bishop gives us a penetrating, compelling, no-holds-barred view of tile life and accomplishments of this controversial figure.

Customer Reviews:

Thank you for playing, please try again later.......2002-11-03

I am sorry that the money was spent to give this book to me as a gift. It is not well researched and not well written. If you have bought everything that Abbey wrote, read it all, bought everything else, read them all, gone back and read at least Desert Solitare and Down the River again, then have to be able to say "I've read everything by and about Abbey"; well then you might, but only might, consider this book. Even then try to borrow it. In fact, I'll send you mine if I haven't tossed it. I have been an Abbey fan for years, not always agreeing but always admiring the point of view. This book was truely not worth my time, I am somewhat amazed that three other people thought it was. Oh well, just as you can say this about me I'll say it about them, there's no accounting for taste.

Epitaph to a Great Writer.......2001-04-06

What a wonderful book! Reading it was like sitting with the author and talking about Ed Abbey over a couple of beers. Bishop's style is so smooth and relaxing. He could give a lesson to all current biographers: we don't need to know everytime the subject had tea with someone or tied his tie over the course of 800 pages! It was just the right mix of disscussion of his life and his books. The last chapter, "Farewell..." was very moving. Edward Abbey was a man I would have loved to have known personally because he was so interesting and caustic, and especially because I don't always agree with him, which makes an interesting mix. I have read 2 novels and 1 book of essays of Abbey's and look forward to reading everything else he has written. A real nice job by the author.

Another treasure of the Southwest is found ... J. Bishop!.......1999-08-26

James P. Bishop, Jr. has created a vivid and real picture of a great man who was as human as the rest of us. I most enjoyed how Abbey's contrariness has been captured. After reading this book, not only do I feel I've come to know of Abbey in some small way, it has given me a greater appreciation for the American Southwest and the need to speak out against government intervention. Written with frank truth and compassion ... a rare combination.

A superb, well-researched analysis of Edward Abbey........1999-07-13

"We shook hands once, but I never knew him personally, and I have mixed feelings about that. I would have liked to argue with him over cheap cigars and good tequila by a blazing river campfire under a sky full of stars. But then, this would have been a different book, more of a personal memoir." James Bishop, Jr. Despite misgivings of not knowing Edward Abbey personally, Bishop has written a superb book on the legend of desert anarchist Cactus Ed. It is a well-researched, no-holds-barred, truthful expose of the mind, musings and legacy of an outrageous, outspoken man who was devoted to preserving the American Southwest wilderness for himself and a select few who would truly understand, preserve and love it unequivocally. Bishop, a polished and professional writer of many years with Newsweek, leaves no saguaro thorn or blossom untouched in his thorough and objective rendering of the subjects life, personality, writings and still living legacy. Often labeled the "Thoreau of the American West," the talented and tenacious Abbey was the promoter of ecodefense and ecosabotage; advocating anarchy to prevent the government and tourist industry from ruining the wilderness. In his twenty-one published books, the most popular being "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and "Desert Solitaire", Abbey shows to have been a determined, cantankerous, frustrated and angry, yet unique and colorful persona. Many detested him; especially those who were to receive financial gain from developing, paving or civilizing the west for tourism or the development of power plants at the cost of damning nature, pun intended. Abbey, certainly a master wordsmith as well, expounds a continuous theme: a surly hatred of progress and dogmatic devotion to wilderness preservation. If the admirable and perplexing Abbey could be summed up in one word, it would have to be curmudgeon; applying his wrath and logic at will depending upon mood and provocation, yet one with a delight of stirring motions within others and then impishly standing back to watch the results. Abbey's theme and writing niche was discovered early in life; the constant rebellion to progress, pomp and formality were seemingly intentional. Despite his denial and distaste for finances, both theme and writing paid well. "Love of wilderness" Abbey wrote in Desert Solitaire, "is an expression of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we will ever know, the only paradise we ever need --- if we only have eyes to see." In his constant struggle to protect the environment from the government, developers and ourselves, Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang implies his fictional delight in openly seeking to enrage others to the point of "monkey wrenching" the governments Glen Canyon Dam Project by damaging equipment or floating dynamite-filled boats to the dam while the ribbon cutting ceremony was taking place. As long as no one got hurt and he, admittedly the one who didn't have the courage to pull the plug or press the handle setting off the dynamite, it was fine with him. So open was Abbey in his determination of stopping progress that the FBI had agents assigned to watch and report on him for most of his adult life. Alas, the struggle of Abbey and his devotees to prevent what many called necessary "growth and progress" was as futile as those who in present day blame Columbus for the genocide of native Americans and eventual take over of two entire continents by Europeans and others. It was and is, inevitable. If Columbus didn't do it, someone else would have. The environs of Abbey's Southeast Utah stomping grounds of the 1950s, resembles little of what it is today, and, regretfully, nothing of what "growth and progress" will deem its state and existence a hundred years from now. We come, we see and, for environments demise, we conquer. Anyone interested in understanding more of Edward Abbey, need only read Desert Solitaire, written in 1968 from essays he wrote in the mid-50s while working as an isolated National Parks employee in Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah. "This is the most beautiful place on earth." Abbey wrote, yet he ended his employment there after two seasons due to the monument becoming "developed and improved so well that I had to leave." The reader seeking complete insight of the unique and complex Edward Abbey should read Epitaph of a Desert Anarchist. "Any writer who is dead and still raises hackles must have done his work properly," eulogized fellow writer and friend Chuck Bowden. Abbey and Bishop have both done their work well.

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In the Desert of Waiting
Annie Fellows Johnston , and Anne Johnston
Manufacturer: Applewood Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1557093830

Book Description

An inspirational story about the value of perseverance along the road to success by the author of The Little Colonel series. Originally published in 1904, this small book relates the story of Shapur, a salt merchant traveling across the desert to sell his wares at the palace of the Rajah. Along the way, misfortune overcomes Shapur and he is faced with decisions that change his life.

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A trip worth taking
Surveyor an oasis in the desert

Surveyor: A Novel
G. W. Hawkes
Manufacturer: MacAdam/Cage Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1878448811

Amazon.com

Something's bothering John Swope, a one-legged sculptor and veteran of the Korean War. He is insisting on paying up all his old bogus gambling debts and the crazy bets he lost (like the one where his desert buddy, Paul, guessed the exact height--to an inch--of a mesa). But what's bugging him? John and Paul, best friends, have been surveying a piece of the New Mexican desert for almost 30 years, working for the mysterious Foundation. For what--or whom--they've never known. They've drifted into lassitude, taking creative liberties with their surveying. "We add mesas and draws and sometimes whole mountain ranges, and we change the courses of rivers. It doesn't much matter to us anymore where we put things."

But underneath the nonchalance looms some menace. Mysteries begin to accumulate, as do an assortment of strangers compelled to the desert--Caliope, who's building a desert town designed to be washed away; the Dinosaur Men--archaeologists in search of ancient bone. When the two crusty surveyors discover that their measurements and readings taken in the past are incorrect, more seems to be shifting than the land's contours.

The descriptions of landscape are worth the price of this slim novel. "It's blue in the evening, and then purple again, and then black, as if all the day's shadows had collected themselves for the next day's inevitable explosion." G.W. Hawkes writes a prose both clipped and lyrical; he creates memorable characters with a few deft strokes. Surveyor is a novel sparsely yet lyrically written about friendship and the impact that mysterious intrusions into their desert world brings. --Hollis Giammatteo

Book Description

Paul Suope and John Merline live a hermetic life in the New Mexico desert, where they survey the terrain for a distant and dubious foundation. They've labored together for thirty years, and their friendship seems as old and as permanent as the geography they're mapping. But when they discover mistakes in their surveying, and when a team of archaeologists and then a beautiful film student named Caliope intrude on their silent and solitary world, everything changes.

Rich in metaphor, written in spare but powerful prose, Surveyor is a poignant novel about two old friends, their magical and mysterious desert home, and the sudden shift in terrain that alters both their sense of place and the structure of their friendship.

Surveyor is being released simultaneously with Semaphore, Hawkes' achingly beautiful novel about misunderstandings and the terrible weight of fear.

Customer Reviews:

A trip worth taking.......2000-03-31

I'm from Williamsport, where Hawkes teaches writing at Lycoming College, and so I've long known about his unusual story-telling gifts. This is a finely realized piece about two men who've been living alone for years, mapping the terrain in the American West, and the changes that occur in their relationship when various outsiders -- including a woman who has come to make an independent film -- come into their "terrain." Richly layered with unobtrusive symbols and interrelationships, also well-informed about its subject matter. Recommended.

Surveyor an oasis in the desert.......2000-03-31

As with his other novels, G.W. Hawkes offers in Surveyor deeply felt characters, intriguing plot lines, and sharply honed language. Metaphor, mystery, and the best kind of suspense--that which comes from a caring for the characters drawn on the page--keeps the reader turning not just from page to page but chapter to chapter. The relationship between the two desert-bound friends, their history, and the "invasion" of their space by a beautiful woman comingle to create a richly intriguing and well-wrought tale. Hawkes is able to divine the mysteries of the deeper forces of our lives and reveal them--in subtle desert colors, in the rhythm of dialogue, in the stirrings and gaits of character--across the pages of Surveyor with brilliant craft and utmost care.

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El Desierto / The Desert
Carlos Franz
Manufacturer: Sudamericana
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Desert Solitaire: A Season In the Wilderness

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Great writing from the old curmudgeon
Abbey's season in the wilderness ages well...
Solid writing about the Utah desert
"Resist much, Obey little"
Desert Solitaire

Desert Solitaire: A Season In the Wilderness
Edward Abbey
Manufacturer: Tx Bookman Remainders
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0860721426

Amazon.com

With language as colorful as a Canyonlands sunset and a perspective as pointed as a prickly pear, Cactus Ed captures the heat, mystery, and surprising bounty of desert life. Desert Solitaire is a meditation on the stark landscapes of the red-rock West, a passionate vote for wilderness, and a howling lament for the commercialization of the American outback.

Book Description

"A passionately felt, deeply poetic book. It has philosophy. It has humor. It has its share of nerve-tingling adventures...set down in a lean, racing prose, in a close-knit style of power and beauty."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKREVIEW
Edward Abbey lived for three seasons in the desert at Moab, Utah, and what he discovered about the land before him, the world around him, and the heart that beat within, is a fascinating, sometimes raucous, always personal account of a place that has already disappeared, but is worth remembering and living through again and again.

Customer Reviews:

Great writing from the old curmudgeon.......2007-08-20

I think this is far and away Abbey's best book. The prose is careful, precise, thoughtful. In my first year teaching, I would read a short section of this book every morning before climbing into the trenches, to remind myself what beautiful prose could be--regardless of the subject matter. (As an animal lover and vegetarian, I still have a hard time with his description of beaning the rabbit.) The book, I think, is definitely a "guy" book--but that's how my taste in reading goes, so I loved it back then, still love it today.

Abbey's season in the wilderness ages well..........2007-06-11

Edward Abbey reflects and reports on a summer he spent as a ranger at Arches National Park in Utah. At that time, Arches was in a pre "industrialized park" state. Desert Solitaire is his tale of adventures and his book of memories. Below is a sprinkling of quotes to give you a taste, a flavor, of what you can expect.

"Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary" (p. 1).

"... I have personal convictions to uphold. Ideals, you might say. I prefer not to kill animals. I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake" (p. 20).

"Don't actually care for ants. Neurotic little pismires" (p. 30).

"We need more predators. The sheepmen complain, it is true, that the coyotes eat some of their lambs. This is true but do they eat enough? I mean, enough lambs to keep the coyotes sleek, healthy, and well fed. That is my concern" (p. 35).

"We are kindred all of us, killer and victim, predator and prey, me and the sly coyote, the soaring buzzard, the elegant gopher snake, the trembling cottontail, the foul worms that feed on our entrails, all of them, all of us. Long live diversity, long live the earth!" (p. 38-39).

"An increasingly pagan and hedonistic people (thank God!), we are learning finally that the forests and mountains and desert canyons are holier than our churches. Therefore let us behave accordingly" (p. 60).

"A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it" (p. 148).

"'Ralph Newcomb', I say, 'do you believe in God?'
'Who?' he says.
'Who?'
'Who.'
'You said it,' I say" (p. 180).

"'Newcomb, for godsake where do we come from?'
'Who knows?'
'Where are we going?'
'Who cares?'
'Who?'
'Who'" (p. 185).

"But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need - if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us - if only we were worthy of it" (p. 190).

"What does [the desert] mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime" (p. 219).

"I am almost prepared to believe that this sweet virginal primitive land will be grateful for my departure and the absence of the tourists, will breath metaphorically a collective sigh of relief - like a whisper of wind - when we are all and finally gone and the place and its creations can return to their ancient procedures unobserved and undisturbed by the busy, anxious, brooding consciousness of man" (p. 300).

Enjoy. Abbey is a writer first, a naturalist second. He takes liberties as necessary to tell his story, so this only seems like an autobiography. Obviously, he was less concerned then about "political correctness." I suspect he would be as irreverent today.

Solid writing about the Utah desert.......2007-06-07

What makes this a highly readable book is the author's revelations about his own feelings and shortcomings. It made me feel like I was there in the desert with him.

"Resist much, Obey little".......2007-04-29

It's been almost 40 years since Desert Solitaire hit the bookshelves; and perhaps it is more appropriate reading now than it was in 1968; certainly "Industrial Tourism" has come to pass.

This book is not gibberish from some "eco-hermit", whatever that is. Yes, old Cactus Ed is cranky and contradictory, full of hyperbole at times. This is his stamp as a prose-poet and unsurpassed storyteller; if you don't get this, you may be reading the wrong books.

Abbey's iconoclastic philosophy of conservation over human "progress" has rendered Desert Solitaire as a true environmental classic. This book is most likely sitting on many home bookshelves between The Mountains of California and A Sand Country Almanac.

Ed Abbey was well steeped in philosophy and literature; when he muses on the civilization vs. culture subject, you can see the meld of anarchism and german existentialism occuring. His impassioned rants reflect his love of the solitary places - landscapes unscathed by that "turbo-monkey" known as man. The humor is as dry and sharp as the the landscapes he describes: episodes with his pet gopher snake; the search for a dead tourist; and the idiocies of The National Park Service.

Like many authors, Abbey's non-fictional writing outshines his fictional stuff. Hands down, Desert Solitaire is his finest work: Rough, Tough, and Combative. This classic is a must read if you are of the "Resist much, Obey little" mindset. Infinite thanks, Cactus Ed . . .

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

Desert Solitaire.......2007-03-08

A classic that should be read by all thinking Americans who care more for our country than they do about the exploitation of the earth for temporary gain.

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Keep your head up....
great premise but falls short of potential
Good idea that gets off track
ok, but not great
Where am I, now?

American Desert: A Novel
Percival Everett
Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0786887974

Book Description

art parable, part fantasy novel, part laugh-out-loud satire, American Desert is the story of Theodore Street, a college professor on the brink of committing suicide. When the decision is taken out of his hands-he's hit by a car and his head is severed from his body-he must come to terms with himself. At his funeral, he sits up in his own coffin with the stitches that bind his head to his body clearly visible. Everyone is horrified by this resurrection. He becomes a source of fear and embarrassment to his daughter, and an object of derision and morbid curiosity to the press and the scientific communities, and is anointed as a sort of devil by an obscure religious cult. In the process, Theodore manages to reestablish his relationship with his estranged wife and family and to rediscover the value of his life. In this experimental, satirical, and bizarre novel, critically acclaimed author Percival Everett once again takes on the assumptions of a culture whose priorities have gone out of whack. He lampoons the press, religion, and academia while offering, ultimately, an existential meditation of what constitutes being alive.

Customer Reviews:

Keep your head up...........2006-06-15

Percival Everett startled me with this book. The first few pages jump out and grab you and haul you into what seems like what will be a sad story. A man on his way to committ suicide is accidently involved in a traffic collision with a truck and decapitated. All presume he is dead until he sits up at his funeral with his head crudely attached on to his shoulders by what seems almost like fishing line.

American Desert is more than just a modern day "Frankenstein" story. It is about a man who thought life was dead, only to find life in death. It is a novel about second chances and how our relationships can be anything we want them to be. In this book, we see the hurt that a family can go through because of choices a member of that family may make. Ultimately, we see that life is more than just the mundane everyday existence we know. We see that sometimes the purpose of our life can only be found when we see that we think we have no purpose.

Don't let the name fool you. American Desert is a well in the dry land of everyday reading. A good book from start to finish and an almost draw dropping ending make this book a solid form of entertainment.

great premise but falls short of potential.......2005-06-29

American Desert has at its no longer beating heart a great premise--the main character, UCLA professor Ted Street, beheaded in a gruesome car accident, sits up in his funeral three days later, no longer dead (though not exactly alive). What follows veers crazily between Street's attempts to come to grips with just what he is, his family's attempts to do the same, and the attempts by various groups (religious cults, the government, the media) to co-opt him for their own uses. The end result is somewhat mixed and admittedly somewhat disappointing as some of the stories work better than others.
The satirical sections have their darkly humorous moments, but are marred by their over-the-top nature, the sometimes obviousness of the satire, and the fact that the targets are so relatively easy.
The quieter sections focusing on Street's personal ruminations on his life and his death are much more successful--sometimes funny, sometimes moving, almost always achingly honest.
The best sections, and unfortunately the ones least explored, deal with his family (wife, daughter, son) and their views toward his "return", as well as his own shifting views toward them. In death, it turns out, is wisdom, though perhaps too lately gained. These moments of familial revelation are by far the most powerful and most moving and one wishes that Everett had spent far less time on the bizarre and much more time on the domestic.
Although it is a wholly enjoyable read almost from start to finish (lags a bit in some places) and the close is quite powerful, in the end, the book is disappointing mostly because it doesn't reach the promise of its premise and because it teases us with long moments of true brilliance. Happily recommended, but sadly as well.

Good idea that gets off track.......2005-05-30

It had me for the first hundred pages. Actually, less than that, since the opening few pages struck me as flip and smug, uninterested in any any more than a superficial engagement with the characters until Ted really emerges as a character instead of a corpse. It seems pretty clear that the author's sympathies lie with Ted to the exclusion of anyone else, though Gloria and the kids get a fairer shake than most (when they're around Ted or thinking about him, in any case.) As such, Everett expects his reader to identify with Ted, and sometimes I do. But as much as I get a thrill from seeing him stick it to Barbie the airheaded news anchor, I can't help thinking Ted (and Everett) could be setting his considerable abilities on bigger targets. It feels mean and ultimately pointless. It's hard to feel any real sympathy for someone who's perfect, someone who doesn't feel any pain and can do and know just about anything. At the point where he's kidnapped, around page 110 or so, the novel has developed into a very interesting study of the shifting family dynamic caused by Ted's "return." But after that, the primary conflict isn't how Ted and his family come to terms with his condition and what it means for them, but rather how or if Ted can escape from his various confinements to get home again, which, to me, isn't nearly as interesting. In the face of this more obvious conflict, the subtler questions of what's happened to Ted and what it means get trampled, and in the end Everette basically shrugs them off. Maybe it's just a matter of taste, but I would have preferred the novel to remain smaller in scope, to trade its sprawl for greater depth.

ok, but not great.......2004-07-22

I read this book in under a week. I am not a fast reader so more avid readers should expect to read this book very quickly. I enjoyed it. The ending worked well for me. It was thought provoking but not quite as profound as the review on NPR led me to believe. It is good and enjoyable but will not go down as one of the great works of fiction for our time. Some of the character names were lame (Lillfaman, sheesh!). This was the first Percival Everett novel I have read and I bought it only because the NPR review intrigued me.

Where am I, now?.......2004-06-13

Mildly comical look at an unfortunate man's mistimed suicide attempt, his regenereation and subsequent hodge-podge of adventures, most too fantastical to believe. The author's many tangents when introducing new characters as they appear, in the form of childhood histories that only can be known from the narrative due to 'supernatural powers', makes for a slightly choppy and, at times, monotonous read. Abrupt ending.

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And the Desert Shall Blossom: A Novel
Phyllis Barber
Manufacturer: Signature Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560850361

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Dull coming-of-age story...
Teenage boy starts a new life in 1950's Palm Springs.

Desert Blues: A Novel
Bill Albert
Manufacturer: Permanent Press (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Dull coming-of-age story..........2004-06-05

Bill Albert's "Desert Blues" tells the story of a 16 year old named Harold back in 1955. He is orphaned by a car accident, and has to live with his "square" aunt Enid. Suffice to say, Enid isn't that glad to have Harold around; she's afraid her lover Archie won't like Harold. Added to the mix is the sudden reappearence of Enid's father(and Harold's grandfather) Abe, who is dying. Harold learns some things about himself, but everyone in the novel is frankly unlikable and dull. Albert doesn't help things by making us want to yell at Enid. All in all, at less than 200 pages, it is brief enough, but it is a dull way to pass an afternoon

Teenage boy starts a new life in 1950's Palm Springs........1998-03-06

Harold Albestein is a L.A. teenager in the 1950's. He is perfectly content entertaining himself by going down to Sunset Blvd and going to movies, his favorite record store for jazz and blues music. When his parents are suddenly killed in an auto accident, Harold finds himself living in Palm Springs with his aunt in the middle of the blazing hot summer. His Aunt Enid finds having her newphew to be disruptive to her own comfortable life of waiting around for her lover to come and visit. Matters become more complicated when Enid's alcoholic father turns up on her doorstep, in the last stages of kidney disease. All of these events cause these lonely people to feel like more of a family.

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