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Nearly Nowhere
Fifteen years ago, Kate Ryan and her daughter Ruby moved to the secluded village of Zamora in northern New Mexico to find a quiet life off the grid. But when Kate invites the wrong drifter home for the night, the delicate peace of their domain is shattered. Troy Mason manages to hang onto Kate for a few weeks, though his charm increasingly fails to offset his lies and delusions of grandeur. It is only a matter of time before the lies turn abusive, igniting a chain reaction of violence and murder. Not even a bullet in the leg will keep Troy from seeking revenge as he chases the missing Ruby over back roads through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, down the River of No Return, and to a white supremacy enclave in Idaho’s Bitterroot Wilderness. Nearly Nowhere explores the darkest places of the American West, emerging with only a fragile hope of redemption in the maternal ties that bind. Originally published by Gallimard’s la Serie noire as Presque nulle part .
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Summer Brenner
28 books9 followersSummer Brenner was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She moved north, east, and eventually west, taking up residence in Berkeley where she has been a long-time resident.
Her writing has appeared in dozens of anthologies and literary magazines. Performances of her work include "The Flood," a poem for four voices at Links Hall, Chicago; The Missing Lover, a one-act play, with readings directed by Peter Glazer; and the poetry and musical extravaganza, Arundo (with Summer Brenner, Andy Dinsmoor, Bob Ernst, Hal Hughes, and GP Skratz). She has given scores of readings in the United States, France, and Japan. Grant awards include the California Arts Council, the Creative Work Fund, and in partnership with Community Works, The Christensen Fund and Lesher Foundation.
Currently, she works on literacy projects in Richmond, California. She is author of more than ten books of poetry and fiction.
Anthologies include:
American Poetry Since 1970: Up Late; American Poets Say Good-Bye to the 20th Century; Cradle and All; Deep Down: New Sensual Writing by Women; The Erotic Impulse; Rising Tides: 20th Century Women Poets; The Stiffest of the Corpse; The Unmade Bed; Wreckage of Reason: Anthology of XXperimental Women Writers Writing in the 21st Century, et al.
Her writing has appeared in dozens of anthologies and literary magazines. Performances of her work include "The Flood," a poem for four voices at Links Hall, Chicago; The Missing Lover, a one-act play, with readings directed by Peter Glazer; and the poetry and musical extravaganza, Arundo (with Summer Brenner, Andy Dinsmoor, Bob Ernst, Hal Hughes, and GP Skratz). She has given scores of readings in the United States, France, and Japan. Grant awards include the California Arts Council, the Creative Work Fund, and in partnership with Community Works, The Christensen Fund and Lesher Foundation.
Currently, she works on literacy projects in Richmond, California. She is author of more than ten books of poetry and fiction.
Anthologies include:
American Poetry Since 1970: Up Late; American Poets Say Good-Bye to the 20th Century; Cradle and All; Deep Down: New Sensual Writing by Women; The Erotic Impulse; Rising Tides: 20th Century Women Poets; The Stiffest of the Corpse; The Unmade Bed; Wreckage of Reason: Anthology of XXperimental Women Writers Writing in the 21st Century, et al.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2012
It might not be the best known publisher on the block, but California-based PM Press has delivered some solid hits with the Switchblade crime series. Benjamin Whitmer’s Pike was an absorbing, bleak read about a reformed hustler and drug trafficker who heads to Cincinnati to find out how his estranged daughter died. It is not for the faint hearted. The Jook by Gary Phillips, the story of pro footballer who has one last chance at the big time, was widely praised and has been on my to-read list for a while now.
I haven’t read any of Summer Brenner’s many books, but she comes highly recommended. And after reading her novel Nearly Nowhere, the latest Switchblade release, I can see why.
Kate, the main character, lives in a small, secluded hardscrabble town in northern New Mexico with her free spirited and beautiful teenage daughter, Ruby. It’s not exactly the happiest of relationships, due to Ruby’s wild ways and Kate’s habit of bringing drifters home for a bit of sex and companionship.
Her latest pick up is Troy. As is always the case with those she brings home, Kate has grown tired of him and wants to terminate the relationship and get him out of her life. Troy is a good looking, but very mentally unhinged young man. He has a violent streak that does not take kindly to being dumped.
No sooner does Kate think Troy is out of her life than she comes home to find her former lover nursing a gunshot wound, her daughter has disappeared, and a stash of drugs in the house she didn’t know she had. It’s hard to say much more without giving away the plot, but it’s safe to say that all roads lead to the Idaho’s beautiful and dangerous wilderness area, a haven for loners and the odd Neo-Nazi cult.
Brenner knows how to pen a nice turn of phrase. Like this description of an encounter between Kate and her daughter: “Ruby hated when he mother made their encounters seem like normal happy events. Kate’s cheerfulness in the ruins of their existence was an insult to common sense.”
In a strange way, not a lot happens in this book and that’s the central appeal. There’s no massive body count and very little violence. Nearly Nowhere just a wonderfully understated story of generational secrets and misunderstanding set against the backdrop of some parts of the US I am completely unfamiliar with.
I haven’t read any of Summer Brenner’s many books, but she comes highly recommended. And after reading her novel Nearly Nowhere, the latest Switchblade release, I can see why.
Kate, the main character, lives in a small, secluded hardscrabble town in northern New Mexico with her free spirited and beautiful teenage daughter, Ruby. It’s not exactly the happiest of relationships, due to Ruby’s wild ways and Kate’s habit of bringing drifters home for a bit of sex and companionship.
Her latest pick up is Troy. As is always the case with those she brings home, Kate has grown tired of him and wants to terminate the relationship and get him out of her life. Troy is a good looking, but very mentally unhinged young man. He has a violent streak that does not take kindly to being dumped.
No sooner does Kate think Troy is out of her life than she comes home to find her former lover nursing a gunshot wound, her daughter has disappeared, and a stash of drugs in the house she didn’t know she had. It’s hard to say much more without giving away the plot, but it’s safe to say that all roads lead to the Idaho’s beautiful and dangerous wilderness area, a haven for loners and the odd Neo-Nazi cult.
Brenner knows how to pen a nice turn of phrase. Like this description of an encounter between Kate and her daughter: “Ruby hated when he mother made their encounters seem like normal happy events. Kate’s cheerfulness in the ruins of their existence was an insult to common sense.”
In a strange way, not a lot happens in this book and that’s the central appeal. There’s no massive body count and very little violence. Nearly Nowhere just a wonderfully understated story of generational secrets and misunderstanding set against the backdrop of some parts of the US I am completely unfamiliar with.
October 30, 2012
The last book from Switchblade with me and Gary as editors, and it was a lovely way to end -- practically where I began, as Summer's I-5 was the second in the series. I love Summer's writing, even as she moves away from the lush verbiage of the poet to the spare and lean sentences of the noir novel. I'm rather a fan of both, but given the lush and mad imagination with which her novels spill across the country in eccentricities and unexpected encounters, perhaps it is best that her language strips down to its own beautiful bones.
Kate is such a recognizable character, the Southwest is full of hippies just like her as I should know. I never cared for many of them, but I did care for her, her relationship with her daughter Ruby is beautifully developed and twists your heart open. So beautifully done I could forget I don't care so much for touching mother-daughter stories either, but this is so much more. It is about violence and weaknesses and perhaps most of all the redemption that everyone seems to be seeking. In their own weird ways (and I'm talking about you Ohio). I'm with the farmers of New Mexico, though they are as flat as Kate sees them, in looking out at that strange rural world. Everything here is strange and extreme, but it works and you are caught up in it and you ride it in a rush all the way to the end...
Kate is such a recognizable character, the Southwest is full of hippies just like her as I should know. I never cared for many of them, but I did care for her, her relationship with her daughter Ruby is beautifully developed and twists your heart open. So beautifully done I could forget I don't care so much for touching mother-daughter stories either, but this is so much more. It is about violence and weaknesses and perhaps most of all the redemption that everyone seems to be seeking. In their own weird ways (and I'm talking about you Ohio). I'm with the farmers of New Mexico, though they are as flat as Kate sees them, in looking out at that strange rural world. Everything here is strange and extreme, but it works and you are caught up in it and you ride it in a rush all the way to the end...
March 3, 2022
Short, very imaginative thriller
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews