Product Description
Charlie Bradshaw is spending his 41st birthday in New York, trying to track down Sam, the son of his great high school love. Sam has gotten himself involved in a big-time drug deal, and everyone -- from Sam to the New York cop on the case -- wishes Charlie would go back to Saratoga to do his sleuthing.

But a combination of stubbornness and savvy -- to say nothing of Sam's enticing girlfriend -- keeps the small-town cop deep in the Big City mystery.

"Murder and mayhem in an unusually inviting climate." (The New York Times) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

First book in series
Longshot is indeed the first book in the series. It came out in 1976. Swimmer is book # 2.

Correction to "The Opening Act"
The first book in Dobyn's Saratoga series is actually 'Saratoga Swimmer,' 1981, I believe.

The Opening Act of the Saratoga Crime Series
This is a classic crime story, simultaneously the first book in Stephen Dobyn's Saratoga crime series, introducing Charlie Bradshaw and the almost legendary Victor Plotz, who get to each other, when Charlie is trying to track down a missing teenager from his hometown who has left for the Big Apple. I don't want to tell more about the plot, because I think telling more would be cheating on those brave readers outta there who want their books the same way John Travolta liked his steak in Pulp Fiction - "bloody as hell, just don't cook it!" - which means, translated into book-language: "shut up, I want to find out what it is about for myself, don't you dare to tell me something about the plot!"

The book description by Amazon is more than sufficient and if I tell you that this is a mystery book about crime and one cool cop, this has to satisfy you. I mean, read the book, you'll see what it's about soon enough.

The book is packing, has niveau and good writing and if you liked other books by Stephen Dobyns, read'it. If you've never heard of Stephen Dobyns before, read it. But if you want an earlier version of "Boy in the Water" or "Church of Dead Girls" forget about it. ALthough all of his books are about crime the setting in Longshot is completely different to the two books mentioned above. The main character is a small town cop, maybe somehow eccentric that old fellow, who lives for wild west legends and uses stories about them to explain situations in his own life. But don't worry, this is no book about gunslingers of the ol' wild west, but about one modern gunslinger, an open-minded, caring guy, who is stubborn and sticks to his promises - a cop from Saratoga Springs. ... Read more

Product Description
What's Super Bowl Sunday without a little gambling party in Saratoga Springs? By bedtime, private detective Charlie Bradshaw's a busy man. The bash has been robbed, Charlie hasn't recovered a stolen painting and a grocer lies dead behind his cash register.

The names of five heavy gamblers promise to hold the key to the murder...and maybe much more. Charlie's investigation veers toward terror as it twists through a netherworld of unpleasant surprises.

"Dobyns is a graceful, assured writer with felicity of word and phrase. His characters spring to life, and he captures the charm of Saratoga Springs, both past and present." (The Washington Post) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Is There Anything Dobyns Can't Do?
Better known for his poetry, Dobyns has shown his mastery of the mystery genre as well. This addition to the Saratoga series is especially great, but I have yet to read one that's poor or even just good; each one has been excellent. Dobyns talent is in taking the conventions of the typical mystery and giving them a facelift. Saratoga Bestiary--and the other Saratoga books--are filled with comedy, excellent characterization, and a poet's flair for masterful language and dialogue. I found myself strangely attached to the characters in a way that I haven't been since adolescence. I highly, highly reccomend this series of books--even if you don't like mysteries as I didn't--as well as the rest of Dobyns work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Wonderful
This is one of the best books of poems written in the past twenty years. Dobyns is a master.

black gun, red gun
I suppose that these poems aren't for everyone, nor is the poet.but then, what is?I personally love them (the poems and the poet), though I know poeple that don't.

Some claim that Dobyns's verse is too prosaic, that it is closer to prose, broken into lines, than it is to actual poetry.I would argue that the poems in this volume are closer to prose poetry, than to prose or poetry, per se.Dobyns's style does not consist of subtlety of language, but straight forward sentences with subtle rhythms.The sentences are often short and forceful, violent.Others are longer and equally vivid, and together they create that subtle rhythm of words and ideas."This morning as dawn broke I was walking / at the outskirts of town.I saw the first light / strike the clapboard front of the general / store next to the woods, reflect from the silver / chrome of a chash register in the front window." (from "Caverns of Darkness," p. 5)The attentive reader will recognize that these poems are not simple-minded.One need not read each poem over and over to catch each line, but in order to make sense of each poem as a whole.The ideas are as subtle as the rhythms, but once they hit you....you'll realize you can only read one at a time.These poems need a bit of time to soak in, to wallow in the misery, and to finally come 'round and think maybe things aren't so bad after all.In a dark world, or a dark night, Stephen Dobyns sees a faint light, stray and shimmering.

Dobyns Does Not Improve With Age
Stephen Dobyns has consistently been a boring poet, that is, he calls himself a poet and his editors have gone along with the subterfuge.He writes mostly prose broken into lines.When he reads, his prosiness becomes even more apparent and unbearable. Why is he considered one of the country's best poets?I have no idea.The only thing I can figure is that we have reached the sorry pass where our academic MFA professors and their students like anything that doesn't sound like poetry.No need to despair, though.There are still good poets out there.YOu likely won't find them being published in the pages of our most "respected" journals, like APR or Poetry, however.

Dobyns at his best
I first picked up a copy of Black Dog/Red Dog when I was a teenager, and it blew my mind. Since that moment, Dobyns has been one of my favorite poets. Much of the poetry is raw and/or angry, but it is never selfindulgent. The poems are written in his characteristic prose like style,and you can see the influence of his journalism background. These are someof the most powerful and honest poems I have ever come across. I highlyrecommend this book to anyone who loves poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Yay for sports photography
Not JUST sports. But people in action is hard to make interesting...especially when most of your body is in the water! These are great photographs. YES, there are nudes! My favorites are the older photos, though. From the historical and revered Aperture Publishers. Originally $55, oversized hardback, 94 pgs. ... Read more

Product Description

Teig's poems display his ability to -create surprising metaphors and images. These are integrated seamlessly into startlingly original poems, which, though often difficult, aren't inaccessible. "With Teig I could never calculate the poem's direction," Stephen Dobyns writes in his Foreword. "Yet where the poem wound up . . . felt exactly right, while the ride itself, the reading experience, gave great pleasure."

Michael Teig earned his MFA in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts, where he studied with Dara Wier and the late Agha Shahid Ali. He founded the literary magazine Jubilat, which operates out of the UMass campus. Currently, he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he works as a freelance writer and editor while continuing to run Jubilat.

Customer Reviews (2)

what a beautiful book
I really love this book.The poems are incredible--beautiful, surprising, exciting, funny, tender.

lovely blue incandescent yard
Wow.This book is clear, strange, beautiful and true.The poems keep veering towards some kind of familiar place, then shying away just in time to leave a vacuum and draw us into a land or dream or something scape where we can feel some feelings we have always somehow known we have.This book comes along quietly and just makes an amazing place to be, which is something so many books of poems (that seem to be so much more about admiring what the poet has read, can do, knows, has experienced, etc.) don't do nowadays.I couldn't be more sure that you will love this book. ... Read more

Product Description
A 38-year-old woman's reflections on the 1960 Chilean earthquake and the influence of that disaster on her family. The after shocks are the effects of a world turned upside down: the near escapes, the perseverance of humanity through memory. By the author of "The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini". ... Read more