Village: a novel: A novel

(Hardback)

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Description

Set in the early 1990s, Village is a gentle, loving satire that explores a day in the life of the fictional Northern New Mexico village of San Marcos, through the points of view of a dozen colorful and eccentric characters: an aging mayordomo, the owners of the village store, the postmaster and his Spanish teacher wife, a teenager, two Anglo couples, a state water office attorney, a spinster weaver, a junkyard owner, a village tough, and the son of a funeral home owner. Besides the Hispanics and Anglos, the village itself, with its long history, is also a character, along with the timeless features, the fauna and flora, of the the narrow mountain valley on the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range. Thoughtful, beautiful and nostalgic, Village evokes a vivid portrait of the human condition.

Reviews

"Village is vintage Crawford. It is a wickedly perceptive, dyspeptic but loving, often hilarious, often tragic, portrait of one day in San Marcos--a place that doesn't exist in only one place in rural New Mexico, but ultimately becomes more real than its models. There are no heroes (except perhaps the long-suffering mayordomo of the ditch), but a lot of very human humans who are slowly revealed as surfaces give way to depths. A great read for those who are familiar with Norteno culture and those who are not." --Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Lure of the Local "This is a truly wonderful novel--a delightful portrait of an utterly engaging cast from a northern New Mexico village. Anyone interested either in the tragicomedy of the human condition or in the real life of New Mexico should get a copy right away. A profound and enchanting new classic from the Sangre de Cristo mountains." --Henry Shukman, award-winning author of Archangel (poems) "This novel, Village, is vintage Crawford ... In short, true to life ... love, death, sex, depression, poverty, ditch cleaning, love of automobiles, teenage craziness, bits of euphoria ... all mingle with the natural world through which the human community stumbles ... The book is a rich portrait, with millions of wonderful details." --John Nichols, best-selling author of The Milagro Beanfield War "Stanley Crawford has crafted a tale in the vein of Tony Hillerman's The Taos Bank Robbery and John Nichol's The Milagro Beanfield War, but with complete originality. This loving portrait of life in a northern New Mexico hamlet is as amusing as it is accurate. Village is a splendid read. Orale!" --Cheryl Alters Jamison, award-winning author of Tasting New Mexico, The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook, and regular contributor to New Mexico Magazine

Author Bio

Stanley G. Crawford is a writer and a farmer. He was born in 1937 and was educated at the University of Chicago and at the Sorbonne. He is the author of seven novels, including Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine, Travel Notes, Gascoyne, and Some Instructions, a classic satire on all the sanctimonious marriage manuals ever produced. He is also the author of two memoirs: A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small Farm in New Mexico and Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. He has written numerous articles in various publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Double Take and Country Living. Stanley Crawford is co-owner with his wife, Rose Mary Crawford, of El Bosque Farm in Dixon, New Mexico, where they have lived since 1969.