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Dry Rain
A memorable collection of stories about family, love, fealty, commitment, and heroism, all set against the backdrop of the everyday people of the American West, ""Dry Rain" is a work of art" ("Men's Journal").
- GenresAmerican
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1997
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131 people want to read
About the author
Pete Fromm
32 books220 followersPete Fromm is a five time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Literary Award for his novels IF NOT FOR THIS, AS COOL AS I AM and HOW ALL THIS STARTED, a story collection, DRY RAIN, and the memoir, INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES. The film of AS COOL AS I AM, starring Claire Danes, James Marsden, and Sarah Bolger was released in 2013. He is the author of four other short story collections and has published over two hundred stories in magazines. He is on the faculty of Oregon’s Pacific University’s Low-Residency MFA Program, and lives in Montana with his family.
http://www.petefromm.com
http://www.petefromm.com
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 15, 2022
3,75 - Pas le choix d’acheter ce recueil vu au hasard dans une librairie, dont le titre fait référence à ce phénomène météorologique mythique de l’ouest. Des histoires d’hommes, de pères, de couple, de ranch, d’accidents. On se sent dans l’Ouest entre montagnes et plaines, trous perdus après trous perdus. Les deux dernières nouvelles sont absolument excellentes.
February 22, 2021
There are some 5* stories in this book: Hoot, Dutch Elm, and Feller.
There are some 2* stories also, but I won't call them out.
It's a good read and finding the high point stories are definitely worth wading through the low point stories. It's especially fun due to the Great Falls connection.
It works well as a collection because there are definitely some recurring themes.
There are some 2* stories also, but I won't call them out.
It's a good read and finding the high point stories are definitely worth wading through the low point stories. It's especially fun due to the Great Falls connection.
It works well as a collection because there are definitely some recurring themes.
August 15, 2024
Aussi emballée par la lecture que par mon départ au Canada 🍁
May 25, 2013
Pete Fromm was an author I had never heard of until I saw him recently on a French book promotion tour. Ironic that an American should come to France to discover this Montana author. His French publisher has had three of his books translated and is apparently high on him in France. I’d have to agree – I just finished this collection of sixteen short stories, and they’re uniformly very good. The book title comes from one of his stories, “Dry Rain,” and the French translation uses another story, “Chinook” as the book title.
Almost all of the stories are about blue collar working men and women who are on the edge, either of shaky marital relationships, financial difficulties, or disintegrating connections with children. I suppose Fromm is what could be called a regional writer, as most of the stories are set in Montana, both in its cities and small towns, but their problems are ones that readers anywhere can appreciate. I think what makes the stories so good is that psychological insights are perceptively linked with aspects of the ever present and close natural world of Montana, the “big sky” state.
In the title story, “dry rain” refers to the huge thunderhead clouds that loom up tall in the hazy sun, ones that might sizzle out before delivering any rain at all. This sense of possibility, of the uncertainty of life, is mirrored in the relationship of a father with his young son. The father is estranged from the mother who has custody of the child, and the father and son jokingly and obliquely talk about changing this relationship, even though it probably isn’t going to happen. It may well sizzle out, just as the father demonstrates the popping of tar bubbles on the hot pavement, a “slow motion balloon, leaking and settling back to the ground.” It is these kind of small details that are impressive.
The French translation title story, “Chinook” describes a warm winter wind in the west that blows up in the winter, melting the snow and causing floods. After it blows through , the cold temperatures comes back and everything freezes up again. The human story involves a man who is crazy in love with Katy, and can’t believe his good fortune in having her fall in love with him and his way of life, that of a isolated ranch. She was an Air Force kid and had lived everywhere. In the end she leaves him unexpectedly, what he thought was satisfaction had turned into desperation. For him an abrupt change that came out of nowhere, for her it had been building for a long time. At the end he feels the “quiet cold” that follows every chinook.
My favorite story, though, was “Feller”, about a contractor who cuts down huge diseased Dutch elm trees. It’s dangerous work, done in the city, as the trees have to be cut in just the right way so that they fall without damaging houses, power lines, automobiles, or endangering lives. The work is being done in the middle of winter. The contractor is good at his work, but it’s demanding and exhausting. It’s done in a distant town and means living out of motel room, all of which takes its toll on his relationship with his wife who helps him.
“After they’re down, you might think the hard part’s over and eveything’s just cruising from here. But think how those trees look standing straight up, arms reaching all over. That’s still how they look lying down, like they can’t give up trying to reach whatever it was they needed. You’ve got branches spread on the ground, holding it up, and you’ve got branches still way over your head, pointing sideways now, instead of straight up, but still outweighing you a hundred to one and still dangerous.”
A apt poetic description of what happens in most of the stories. Ordinary, decent people are searching for what they need in life, often failing, or close to it, but still contending with what’s to be done,, just as the downed elm trees still have to be taken care of. Nothing is easy, but people struggle and Fromm generously and uncynically always gives them fleeting opportunities to discover those needs.
Almost all of the stories are about blue collar working men and women who are on the edge, either of shaky marital relationships, financial difficulties, or disintegrating connections with children. I suppose Fromm is what could be called a regional writer, as most of the stories are set in Montana, both in its cities and small towns, but their problems are ones that readers anywhere can appreciate. I think what makes the stories so good is that psychological insights are perceptively linked with aspects of the ever present and close natural world of Montana, the “big sky” state.
In the title story, “dry rain” refers to the huge thunderhead clouds that loom up tall in the hazy sun, ones that might sizzle out before delivering any rain at all. This sense of possibility, of the uncertainty of life, is mirrored in the relationship of a father with his young son. The father is estranged from the mother who has custody of the child, and the father and son jokingly and obliquely talk about changing this relationship, even though it probably isn’t going to happen. It may well sizzle out, just as the father demonstrates the popping of tar bubbles on the hot pavement, a “slow motion balloon, leaking and settling back to the ground.” It is these kind of small details that are impressive.
The French translation title story, “Chinook” describes a warm winter wind in the west that blows up in the winter, melting the snow and causing floods. After it blows through , the cold temperatures comes back and everything freezes up again. The human story involves a man who is crazy in love with Katy, and can’t believe his good fortune in having her fall in love with him and his way of life, that of a isolated ranch. She was an Air Force kid and had lived everywhere. In the end she leaves him unexpectedly, what he thought was satisfaction had turned into desperation. For him an abrupt change that came out of nowhere, for her it had been building for a long time. At the end he feels the “quiet cold” that follows every chinook.
My favorite story, though, was “Feller”, about a contractor who cuts down huge diseased Dutch elm trees. It’s dangerous work, done in the city, as the trees have to be cut in just the right way so that they fall without damaging houses, power lines, automobiles, or endangering lives. The work is being done in the middle of winter. The contractor is good at his work, but it’s demanding and exhausting. It’s done in a distant town and means living out of motel room, all of which takes its toll on his relationship with his wife who helps him.
“After they’re down, you might think the hard part’s over and eveything’s just cruising from here. But think how those trees look standing straight up, arms reaching all over. That’s still how they look lying down, like they can’t give up trying to reach whatever it was they needed. You’ve got branches spread on the ground, holding it up, and you’ve got branches still way over your head, pointing sideways now, instead of straight up, but still outweighing you a hundred to one and still dangerous.”
A apt poetic description of what happens in most of the stories. Ordinary, decent people are searching for what they need in life, often failing, or close to it, but still contending with what’s to be done,, just as the downed elm trees still have to be taken care of. Nothing is easy, but people struggle and Fromm generously and uncynically always gives them fleeting opportunities to discover those needs.
November 11, 2023
Un recueil de nouvelles lu dans le cadre du thème de novembre « nature writing » du « challengegallmeister » sur Instagram. Pete Fromm nous emmène hors du Montana jusqu’en Alaska, à travers une dizaine de courtes nouvelles mettant en scène des gens ordinaires face à des drames ordinaires. Divorce, désespoir, peur de vieillir, difficultés face aux enfants… mais aussi amour, retrouvailles, vivre ensemble. Dry Rain, Dérapage et Chinook sont mes préférées.
January 26, 2020
I liked many of these stories mostly about young men who grew up in the West although it may be due to the fact that I really didn't care for some of the characters that I decided to give this a 3.
October 25, 2023
Je suis en admiration devant Pete Fromm
May 11, 2023
J'aime Pete Fromm. Mais je n'aime pas les nouvelles.
Alors qu'allait il se passer en lisant des nouvelles écritent par Pete Fromm ?
Et bien BINGO, j'ai adoré !
C'est homme à un talent incroyable, c'est un conteur magistral.
À travers 16 nouvelles, il a réussi à m'embarquer autant que si je lisait un de ses romans.
On va y suivre 16 histoires, si ordinaires qu'elles en deviennent extra-ordinaires. Des gens comme vous et moi, des thèmes qui parlent à toutes et tous.
Et tout ça sur fond de Nature Writing, avec un Montana, si cher au cœur de l'auteur. Ses montagnes, son climat, ses habitants.
L'exercice est superbement réalisé, je n'ai pas de goût de "trop peu, trop rapide" comme cela m'arrive souvent avec ce format. Il a suffit de quelques 5 ou 6 pages pour me toucher et m'emouvoir.
Du grand Pete Fromm !
Alors qu'allait il se passer en lisant des nouvelles écritent par Pete Fromm ?
Et bien BINGO, j'ai adoré !
C'est homme à un talent incroyable, c'est un conteur magistral.
À travers 16 nouvelles, il a réussi à m'embarquer autant que si je lisait un de ses romans.
On va y suivre 16 histoires, si ordinaires qu'elles en deviennent extra-ordinaires. Des gens comme vous et moi, des thèmes qui parlent à toutes et tous.
Et tout ça sur fond de Nature Writing, avec un Montana, si cher au cœur de l'auteur. Ses montagnes, son climat, ses habitants.
L'exercice est superbement réalisé, je n'ai pas de goût de "trop peu, trop rapide" comme cela m'arrive souvent avec ce format. Il a suffit de quelques 5 ou 6 pages pour me toucher et m'emouvoir.
Du grand Pete Fromm !
December 11, 2007
I love collections of short stories, because if you’re not liking a story you can skip to the next one without loosing the thread of the story.
I didn’t skip any of the stories in this book. They are deep and thought provoking without getting maudlin, preachy, or pretentious.
I especially liked the story entitled “Concentrate.”
And since I live in the West, the stories really spoke to my soul.
I didn’t skip any of the stories in this book. They are deep and thought provoking without getting maudlin, preachy, or pretentious.
I especially liked the story entitled “Concentrate.”
And since I live in the West, the stories really spoke to my soul.
March 4, 2022
un recueil de magnifiques nouvelles publiées chez Gallmeister récemment. Tous ces personnages brièvement rencontrés au fil des pages vous laisse un gout doux-amer et une emprunte indélébile.
Read
June 23, 2018Well-developed characters drawn with no extraneous strokes. Somewhat desolate stories that made me a little bit uncomfortable, and also made me think.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews