Product Description

"Exhilarating, like a swift ride through river rapids with a spunky, sexy gal handling the oars."—Washington Post Book World

In Pam Houston's critically acclaimed collection of strong, shrewd, and very funny stories, we meet smart women who are looking for the love of a good man, and men who are wild and hard to pin down.

"I've always had this thing for cowboys, maybe because I was born in New Jersey. But a real cowboy is hard to find these days, even in the West," says the narrator in the title story of Pam Houston's critically acclaimed collection. In these strong, shrewd, and very funny stories, we meet smart women who are looking for the love of a good man, and men who are wild and hard to pin down. Our heroines are part daredevil, part philosopher, all acute observers of the nuances of modern romance. They go where their cowboys go, they meet cowboys who don't look the part — and they have staunch friends who give them advice when the going gets rough. Cowboys Are My Weakness is a refreshing and realistic look at men and women—together and apart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114368 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393326352
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
A good man is hard to find, but a good cowboy practically impossible. At least that's what the women in this accomplished, witty and engrossing debut short-story collection discover when they fall 10-gallon-hat-over-spurs for the kind of men who go in for roping cattle, not for romance. In "Selway," among the most gripping of these 12 tales, an intrepid young woman rafts through treacherous white water to keep up with her boyfriend, who is as untamed as the river that nearly kills them. Accompanying Boone ("a hunter of the everything-has-to-be-hard-and-painful-to-be-good variety") through the Alaskan wilderness during sheep hunting season, the unnamed narrator of "Dall" learns about male camaraderie, violence and herself. The cowboy enthusiast in the title story, listening to country music, observes, "The men in the songs were all either brutal or inexpressive. . . . The women were victims, every one." But the women featured here aren't victims: they are smart, funny and likable. A gifted storyteller and a fine writer, Houston brings insight and an original perspective to the heavily trafficked gender divide. Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Houston, whose short stories have appeared in such periodicals as Mirabella and Mademoiselle , now has her first collection, the highlights of which are "How To Talk to a Hunter," a story selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories, 1990 ( LJ 10/1/90), and "Selway." Though these two stand out, the collection as a whole showcases a fresh, original, strong feminine voice. Houston is almost Hemingway-esque in her spare prose, yet richly eloquent in her descriptions of the Western sensibility. "How To Talk to a Hunter" oozes sensuality and masculinity, while at the same time getting inside the feminine mind in love with a man of few words. Likewise, "Selway" brilliantly shows what the experience of loving an adventurer is like. Houston is a part-time guide in Alaska. This is a strong woman who is wise and cynical but refreshingly optimistic. Her view of man-woman relationships is realistic: wise women get involved with "cowboys" they should know better, but they don't. Recommended.
- Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Bay Area Cooperative Lib. System, Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
``...I should know better, but I love it when he calls me baby.'' That about sums up the sentiment running through these fresh, highly crafted, image-packed stories by the debuting Houston. Her setting is the West, her protagonists women in their late 20s, rugged, outdoorsy, independent types looking for the love of a good man no less doggedly than are their yuppie sisters; it's only that when the guys out there disappoint--as, according to Houston, guys must--they howl instead of whine. In the collection opener, ``How to Talk to a Hunter'' (Best American Stories 1990), the down-spiraling course of a love affair between the narrator and a classic Houston male (a cowboy who's shared more intimacies with the stuffed mule deer on his wall than he ever will with a woman) trickles out amid amusing aphorisms about the ultimate incompatibility of the sexes. The theme gets replayed in ``Selway'' (from Mademoiselle), though this time in the Deliverance-like action and adventure of a maniacs-only trip down a high-water river, undertaken by the narrator in order to win the love of a professional white-water rafter. It's not until ``Cowboys Are My Weakness'' that the female voices of these stories begin to show some starch. In that story, a woman first discovers the difference between real and ersatz cowboys, then figures out that neither variety is ever going to provide ``the impossible love of a country song.'' And when ``In My Next Life'' finally rolls around, Houston delivers up a rich, sad relationship between two women, one dying of breast cancer, both locked in hopeless affairs with men, both flirting with lesbianism--``Aren't there women who...wake up ready to hold and be held by somebody who knows what it means?'' The author doesn't always search far enough for the reason why smart women behave like dishrags--but most of these stories are fine things from a writer one hopes will come up with a novel before too many suns sink in the West. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Published as fiction, but does anyone believe THAT?
Pam Houston's fictional characters somehow to always seem like the great lady herself, eccentric, strong, athletic, daring, and tough. And then there are the men. They have it tough in Houston's world, and no wonder. Sometimes even she agrees that she probably treats her dogs better than she does her men.
However, while her women are gutsy, they are still vulnerable, still learning, still making mistakes, and the biggest seems to be falling for inaccessible men. As her character says in the title story of this collection, "I've always had a thing for cowboys...but they're hard to find these days, even in the West."
Full of gender-heavy wisecracking, Cowboys are My Weakness will have you laughing, groaning, and crying. Enjoy yourself.

Outdoorsy Romance Transcends Usual Corset Busting
Given to me by the same friend who sent me "Girl Interrupted," "Anywhere But Here," and "Sin," I figured this must be something worth reading.

Starting out, I began to think this was going to be a Rosamonde Pilcher type book, and "Cowboys..." does share Pilcher's usual theme: independent-woman-finds-love-in-the-arms-of-someone-cooler-and-smarter-than-Fabio. And the title of the collection implies a lot: the protagonists are all generally strong women who lose it over the Marlboro Man.

But there is an underlying pathos in the collection, an electric charge of wild man and level-headed woman. I am sure you could turn out a killer essay exploring the sexual politics in these stories, but they are also just good fun.

The tales are very well-written, and the settings are very nicely described. If the reader wants to feel what it'd be like to escape to the high desert with a trapper like Jim Bridger or to the mountains with a cute outlaw like Jesse James, reading this book is a good way to do that.

The writer's obvious familiarity with exciting, rugged skills like snow camping and game scouting is impressive, and this knowledge gives the stories extra substance.

Warning to animal lovers: contains hunting.

She's no female Hemingway.
This book was OK. Just OK. I didn't think the writing stood up to the glowing reviews that I read. On the other hand, it's a quick read. The plots of the stories were very predictable. After you read one, you had really read all of them. I used to live in West, and I've known a few cowboys in my time. Her portrayal of both was a little trite. These guys weren't cowboys, they were just garden variety losers.