H. Arlo Nimmo's Blog

“As readers wind through Night Train and Other Stories, they come to realize that these vignettes are slices of life that transcend either autobiography or literature, presenting a relentless train ride through connections lost and found. These stories capture marvelous slices of life that depict the intersection between personal experience and lives changed by circumstance and political affairs. They chart solitary journeys, encounters with other cultures, small acts of kindnesses between strangers, and conundrums of survival, duty, and choice.With the relentless staccato progression of a rail ride, Night Train and Other Stories takes ordinary encounters and considers the roots of their happiness and sorrow, paralleling their lasting impact with past and present evolutionary processes. Readers of short stories who enjoy vignettes that pack in-the-moment emotion into deeper considerations of social justice and political affairs will find these well-seasoned stories just the ticket.” D. Donovan, Recommended Reading, Donovan’s Literary Services

“Night Train by H. Arlo Nimmo is a compilation of thirteen short stories written from an anthropologist’s perspective . . . about various characters in unusual and exotic locations. The stories take the reader through many eras and locales and show the views of those times in fascinating character studies. Explore the world from times gone by; the beginning of World War Two, a flash of the Seventies, and a small taste of the Holocaust. Experience the prejudice surrounding Germany a year after The Wall came down. Travel the high seas with a writer and solve the mysterious disappearance of an abusive old man on a freighter. With many adventures and colorful locations, this book takes the reader on the journey of a lifetime . . . I liked how the stories focused on either a particular person or situation; by the end of the story the reader has learned something new. I found these stories to be more of life or human studies than just short story fiction. Each chapter has the reader peeling back another layer of understanding into humanity. I could easily see this book being used as a teaching tool, although, I must warn the reader that there is some subject matter that isn’t appropriate for children under eighteen due to some explicit LGBTQ content. I would recommend this book to those that are interested in anthropology and historical fiction.” Reviewed By Alyssa Elmore for Readers’ Favorite

“Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of short stories . . . narrated by an anthropologist as he travels throughout the world . . . Each tale in this marvelous collection is a treat to read . . . Night Train and Other Stories offers brief, beguiling and timeless looks into other cultures as well as into those oddities that are still inherent in what is considered the ‘dominant’ culture, all seen dispassionately by the anthropologist and shared minutely with his audience. I found mystery, adventure and romance hidden within these pages, and even caught a few glimpses of the spirit behind the writing.” Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite

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“As readers wind through Night Train and Other Stories, they come to realize that these vignettes are slices of life that transcend either autobiography or literature, presenting a relentless train ride through connections lost and found. These stories capture marvelous slices of life that depict the intersection between personal experience and lives changed by circumstance and political affairs. They chart solitary journeys, encounters with other cultures, small acts of kindnesses between strangers, and conundrums of survival, duty, and choice.With the relentless staccato progression of a rail ride, Night Train and Other Stories takes ordinary encounters and considers the roots of their happiness and sorrow, paralleling their lasting impact with past and present evolutionary processes. Readers of short stories who enjoy vignettes that pack in-the-moment emotion into deeper considerations of social justice and political affairs will find these well-seasoned stories just the ticket.” D. Donovan, Recommended Reading, Donovan’s Literary Services

[image error]“Night Train by H. Arlo Nimmo is a compilation of thirteen short stories written from an anthropologist’s perspective . . . about various characters in unusual and exotic locations. The stories take the reader through many eras and locales and show the views of those times in fascinating character studies. Explore the world from times gone by; the beginning of World War Two, a flash of the Seventies, and a small taste of the Holocaust. Experience the prejudice surrounding Germany a year after The Wall came down. Travel the high seas with a writer and solve the mysterious disappearance of an abusive old man on a freighter. With many adventures and colorful locations, this book takes the reader on the journey of a lifetime . . . I liked how the stories focused on either a particular person or situation; by the end of the story the reader has learned something new. I found these stories to be more of life or human studies than just short story fiction. Each chapter has the reader peeling back another layer of understanding into humanity. I could easily see this book being used as a teaching tool, although, I must warn the reader that there is some subject matter that isn’t appropriate for children under eighteen due to some explicit LGBTQ content. I would recommend this book to those that are interested in anthropology and historical fiction.” Reviewed By Alyssa Elmore for Readers’ Favorite

[image error]“Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of short stories . . . narrated by an anthropologist as he travels throughout the world . . . Each tale in this marvelous collection is a treat to read . . . Night Train and Other Stories offers brief, beguiling and timeless looks into other cultures as well as into those oddities that are still inherent in what is considered the ‘dominant’ culture, all seen dispassionately by the anthropologist and shared minutely with his audience. I found mystery, adventure and romance hidden within these pages, and even caught a few glimpses of the spirit behind the writing.” Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite

“. . . Explore the world from times gone by; the beginning of World War Two, a flash of the Seventies, and a small taste of the Holocaust. Experience the prejudice surrounding Germany a year after The Wall came down. Travel the high seas with a writer and solve the mysterious disappearance of an abusive old man on a freighter. With many adventures and colorful locations, this book takes the reader on the journey of a lifetime . . .”  Alyssa Elmore – Readers’ Favorite

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Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of thirteen short stories told by an anthropologist narrator and set in locales around the world. Among the characters and events appearing in the stories are a ship that mysteriously disappears in the South Pacific, a renowned anthropologist who finds her Shangri La in the New Guinea highlands, a middle-aged American couple who briefly discover enlightenment in India, a freighter ship that loses an unpopular passenger in the mid-Pacific, a quartet of passengers traveling by overnight train from Prague to Berlin, a Polynesian man from the South Pacific and his flirtation with America, an out-of-body experience on the Solo River in Java and a San Francisco New Year’s Eve party with an assortment of strangely quiet guests. The stories cover a time span of approximately sixty years and some of them incorporate historical events such as the Battle of the Bulge, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust.

List Price: $15.00

216 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1542468541

ISBN-10: 154246854X

October Properties: San Francisco

A Very Far Place.  Tales of Tawi-Tawi.   2012.  Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.

[image error]This collection of nine interrelated short stories is a sequel to The Songs of Salanda, a fictionalized exploration of H. Arlo Nimmo’s anthropological fieldwork among the nomadic boat-dwelling Bajau (aka Sama Dilaut) of the southern Philippines in the mid-1960s.  Inspired by some of the people, places and events he encountered during those years, the stories include an American man searching for a father he never knew, a Filipino man seeking beauty and comfort denied him in Manila, the tragic ill-fated voyage of a young family, a broken American expat who finds solace in classical music, a Jewish woman and a German man who carry their mutual enmity to the other side of the world, a teen-age couple divided by their families’ feud and a strange house on a river filled with dead animals. Although the stories are set in a faraway place and a distant time, their themes resonate in the here and now.

ISBN: 9789715506571, 237 pages.

Finalist.  2013 Philippines National Book Award for short fiction.

“H. Arlo Nimmo writes about his years living in the Philippines’ southernmost province so affectionately (in this book and his previous one, The Songs of Salanda) that one can’t help but be shamed by how little we know of that bucolic place and its lovely people.”  Gemma Nemenzo – Positively Filipino

“The no-frills writing [of A Very Far Place] is journalistic rather than poetic. There are many interesting stories that could have been made more heartfelt. Had this book been written by a Filipino writer, I would have shed a tear or two. Maybe that was Nimmo’s style being an anthropologist and an American who experienced World War II when he was a toddler. . . . Tawi-Tawi and its environs are the main fare in the book. The tales are basically set prior to the armed religious conflict that started in the early 70’s. There are many memorable characters (the pregnant woman, the dead child and the father who committed suicide are far mind-lingering followed by the Mr. Bob the American mechanic playing classical music at night) and events that made me want to pack my bag and go Tawi-Tawi for myself. Although Nimmo made a disclaimer that the events and characters are his imaginings, I know the place is still there. I just added this to my bucket list and I will make sure that it will be the next place in Mindanao that my family and I will visit.”  K. D. Absolutely – Goodreads

“Explore the world from times gone by; the beginning of World War Two, a flash of the Seventies, and a small taste of the Holocaust. Experience the prejudice surrounding Germany a year after The Wall came down. Travel the high seas with a writer and solve the mysterious disappearance of an abusive old man on a freighter. With many adventures and colorful locations, this book takes the reader on the journey of a lifetime . . .”  Alyssa Elmore – Readers’ Favorite

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Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of thirteen short stories told by an anthropologist narrator and set in locales around the world. Among the characters and events appearing in the stories are a ship that mysteriously disappears in the South Pacific, a renowned anthropologist who finds her Shangri La in the New Guinea highlands, a middle-aged American couple who briefly discover enlightenment in India, a freighter ship that loses an unpopular passenger in the mid-Pacific, a quartet of passengers traveling by overnight train from Prague to Berlin, a Polynesian man from the South Pacific and his flirtation with America, an out-of-body experience on the Solo River in Java and a San Francisco New Year’s Eve party with an assortment of strangely quiet guests. The stories cover a time span of approximately sixty years and some of them incorporate historical events such as the Battle of the Bulge, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust.

List Price: $15.00

216 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1542468541

ISBN-10: 154246854X

October Properties: San Francisco

Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of thirteen short stories told by an anthropologist narrator and set in locales around the world. Among the characters and events appearing in the stories are a ship that mysteriously disappears in the South Pacific, a renowned anthropologist who finds her Shangri La in the New Guinea highlands, a middle-aged American couple who briefly discover[image error] enlightenment in India, a freighter ship that loses an unpopular passenger in the mid-Pacific, a quartet of passengers traveling by overnight train from Prague to Berlin, a Polynesian man from the South Pacific and his flirtation with America, an out-of-body experience on the Solo River in Java and a San Francisco New Year’s Eve party with an assortment of strangely quiet guests. The stories cover a time span of approximately sixty years and some of them incorporate historical events such as the Battle of the Bulge, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust.

List Price: $15.00

216 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1542468541

ISBN-10: 154246854X

October Properties: San Francisco

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“As readers wind through Night Train and Other Stories, they come to realize that these vignettes are slices of life that transcend either autobiography or literature, presenting a relentless train ride through connections lost and found. These stories capture marvelous slices of life that depict the intersection between personal experience and lives changed by circumstance and political affairs. They chart solitary journeys, encounters with other cultures, small acts of kindnesses between strangers, and conundrums of survival, duty, and choice.With the relentless staccato progression of a rail ride, Night Train and Other Stories takes ordinary encounters and considers the roots of their happiness and sorrow, paralleling their lasting impact with past and present evolutionary processes. Readers of short stories who enjoy vignettes that pack in-the-moment emotion into deeper considerations of social justice and political affairs will find these well-seasoned stories just the ticket.” D. Donovan, Recommended Reading, Donovan’s Literary Services

[image error]“Night Train by H. Arlo Nimmo is a compilation of thirteen short stories written from an anthropologist’s perspective . . . about various characters in unusual and exotic locations. The stories take the reader through many eras and locales and show the views of those times in fascinating character studies. Explore the world from times gone by; the beginning of World War Two, a flash of the Seventies, and a small taste of the Holocaust. Experience the prejudice surrounding Germany a year after The Wall came down. Travel the high seas with a writer and solve the mysterious disappearance of an abusive old man on a freighter. With many adventures and colorful locations, this book takes the reader on the journey of a lifetime . . . I liked how the stories focused on either a particular person or situation; by the end of the story the reader has learned something new. I found these stories to be more of life or human studies than just short story fiction. Each chapter has the reader peeling back another layer of understanding into humanity. I could easily see this book being used as a teaching tool, although, I must warn the reader that there is some subject matter that isn’t appropriate for children under eighteen due to some explicit LGBTQ content. I would recommend this book to those that are interested in anthropology and historical fiction.” Reviewed By Alyssa Elmore for Readers’ Favorite

[image error]“Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of short stories . . . narrated by an anthropologist as he travels throughout the world . . . Each tale in this marvelous collection is a treat to read . . . Night Train and Other Stories offers brief, beguiling and timeless looks into other cultures as well as into those oddities that are still inherent in what is considered the ‘dominant’ culture, all seen dispassionately by the anthropologist and shared minutely with his audience. I found mystery, adventure and romance hidden within these pages, and even caught a few glimpses of the spirit behind the writing.” Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite

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This collection of sixteen short stories is H. Arlo Nimmo’s personal exploration of his anthropological fieldwork among the nomadic boat-dwelling Bajau (aka Sama Dilaut) of the southern Philippines. Inspired by people, places and events he encountered, the stories include a misanthropic Chinese fish-buyer, a brother and sister who sell sexual favors to save the family business, an imprisoned young man believed to be possessed by demons, an American GI who senses his impending death in the battlefields of Vietnam, and a Muslim pirate rebelling against the Christian Philippine government.

ISBN: 0295973358, 237 pages.

Winner of 1994 Philippines National Book Award for Social Sciences.

Awarded 1994 Certificate of Merit “in recognition of excellence in concept, design and manufacturing” by Bookbuilders West.

The Songs of Salanda has a Philippine English-language edition as well as editions in Japanese and Malay.

“Aside from being well written, engaging and entertaining, this book is an important chronicle of a time and place that are gone forever.” The Guardsman

“Nimmo’s language is honestly crafted, and as the book progresses, the writing becomes more poetic . . . A fascinating journey to another culture, place, and time.” Kirkus Reviews

“This is a fascinating book and a very enjoyable read . . . The book’s narrative style is marked by a very spare, concise prose that in its neatness, and relative lack of complex literary narrative convention, conveys the impression of a personable but rather detached narrator.” Pacific Affairs

“The Songs of Salanda [is] drawn on images summoned deep from the well of memory . . . In his book [Nimmo] sheds the constraints of academic writing to offer colorful vignettes of life at the edge of perpetual summer.   While Mr. Nimmo’s ingenuous prose can be workmanlike, its lucid candor creates the spell he desires.” The New York Times

“The Songs of Salanda is an exceptional book for Philippine studies and a uniquely successful work of ethnographic fiction . . . [W]hether judged by the standards of cultural anthropology or by those of literature, this is a remarkable and admirable book. The prose throughout is concise, unpretentious, and frequently brilliant in its descriptive effects. The text achieves a narrative realism that would spark the envy of the best interpretive ethnographer.” Pilipinas

 

Source: The Songs of Salanda and Other Stories of Sulu

The Songs of Salanda and Other Stories of Sulu. 1994. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

A History of Potomac Street and Duboce Park

[image error]This book explores the history of Duboce Park and Potomac Street, a small park and short street in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco.   Part One, “History,” discusses the origins of the park and street as well as changes in the neighborhood from 1899 to 2007. The data utilized include San Francisco city documents, United States census reports, newspaper stories, interviews with longtime residents and H. Arlo Nimmo’s observations during thirty-five years’ residence on Potomac Street. Part Two, “Musings and Memories,” is a journal of personal observations recorded by Nimmo during his long residence in the neighborhood. Although the history of this neighborhood is unique, in many ways it is a microcosm of the surrounding neighborhoods, the city of San Francisco and the urban history of the United States. A Revised Edition released in 2016 (ISBN# 9781534686052) includes an Afterword that discusses changes in the neighborhood since the original publication of this book in 2007.

ISBN: 9780981450902, 124 pages, 18 photos, 1 map, 6 tables.

ISBN: 9781534686052, 137 pages, 18 photos, 1 map, 6 tables.

“[This] book is a charming narrative and an excellent addition to the archives of neighborhood history.” Newsletter of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society

“Night Train and Other Stories is a collection of short stories . . . narrated by an anthropologist as he travels throughout the world . . . Each tale in this marvelous collection is a treat to read . . . I found mystery, adventure and romance hidden within these pages, and even caught a few glimpses of the spirit behind the writing.” Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite – Spring 2017

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