Renowned Nevada writer Robert Laxalt has embraced a wide range of subjects in his nearly half-century career. In this candid memoir, he explores what is perhaps his most difficult subject ever himself and his life as a writer. The book opens with a series of vignettes about his youth in Carson City as the second son of an immigrant Basque family and his later experiences as a student at the University of Nevada in Reno. The second part of the book tells of Laxalt's career as a writer his early days as a reporter when his assignments included interviews with gangsters and obligatory attendance at executions; his later adventures as a contract writer for National Geographic, and his two stays in the Basque Country. He also recounts his days as director of the University of Nevada's news service and his role in the founding of the University of Nevada Press. The third section discusses the writing of several of his major books where the ideas came from, what he tried to accomplish in each book, the challenges he faced, and the ways he chose to resolve them. Foreword by Cheryll Glotfelty.
How long has it been since you fell in love with a book? Dominique Laxalt was sixteen when he left the French Pyrenees for America. He became a sheepherder in the Nevada desert and nearby hills of the Sierra. Like all his fellow Basque immigrants, Dominique dreamed of someday returning to the land of his beginnings. Most Basques never made the journey back, but Dominique finally did return for a visit with family and friends. Sweet Promised Land is the story of that trip, told by his son Robert, who accompanied him to the pastoral mountain village of Tardets in France. Dominique came home victorious, the adventurer who had conquered the unknown and found his fortune in the New World. He told of his life in America, the hardships and challenges, and began to realize that he had changed since his departure from Tardets. By the end of the visit, he knew with certainty where he belonged. During the past fifty years, this book has become a classic in Western American literature, still beloved by the Basque-American community. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication, western literature scholar Ann Ronald wrote a new foreword, discussing the book in the context of American and Nevada literature.
Sagebrush and neon, shepherds and gangsters, a crossroads and a refuge, Nevada is a state that "didn't deserve to be." Through a turbulent history, Nevada has searched for an identity to call its own. How well it has succeeded is the subject of Robert Laxalt's evocative portrait of the state and its people.
Empreint d'humanité et de poésie, d'une grande unité stylistique, ce livre est celui que tout écrivain attaché au Pays basque aurait sans doute aimé écrire. Confrontant un noyau imaginaire obsédant, fait de réminiscences et d'affects - le legs du père -, à une subtile exploration ethnique, l'auteur suspend le monde rural basque des années 1960 entre rêve et réalité. Ce qui donne sa force à ce récit c'est, derrière l'apparente simplicité des portraits et des paysages, la conscience d'un mystère, l'expérience de l'étrangeté, la présence sourde d'une mémoire asphyxiante.
How long has it been since you fell in love with a book? Dominique Laxalt was sixteen when he left the French Pyrenees for America. He became a sheepherder in the Nevada desert and nearby hills of the Sierra. Like all his fellow Basque immigrants, Dominique dreamed of someday returning to the land of his beginnings. Most Basques never made the journey back, but Dominique finally did return for a visit with family and friends. Sweet Promised Land is the story of that trip, told by his son Robert, who accompanied him to the pastoral mountain village of Tardets in France. Dominique came home victorious, the adventurer who had conquered the unknown and found his fortune in the New World. He told of his life in America, the hardships and challenges, and began to realize that he had changed since his departure from Tardets. By the end of the visit, he knew with certainty where he belonged. During the past fifty years, this book has become a classic in Western American literature, still beloved by the Basque-American community. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication, western literature scholar Ann Ronald wrote a new foreword, discussing the book in the context of American and Nevada literature.
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