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Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight
In this intriguing tale (not for children), storyteller extraordinaire Ursula K. Le Guin explores the magic of animals. Her animal characters -- from the irreverent trickster Coyote to the wise matriarch Grandmother Spider -- seem like people to us, just as they do to the little girl who finds herself living among them. We learn, with the girl, that these "Old People" once lived freely on the earth but now must maintain their lifeways carefully alongside the "New People" -- humans.Susan Seddon Boulet chose this tale to illustrate, completing twenty works for its publication. They are extremely effective in bringing Le Guin's characters to life, imbuing them, of course, with Boulet's singular vision of the otherworldly realms occupied by animal spirits. This book is a must for any serious collector of Boulet art.
79 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1987
16 people are currently reading
1037 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,044 books30.1k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
December 17, 2022
A girl, Myra, crashed in a desert is taken into by some anthropomorphic animals, amongst other a coyote. This story gave me Junglebook vibes, but without a happy ending
Are you coming or are you dying there?
I felt quite a few things went over my head, due to myself being European (for instance not knowing the song of the title) but the plight of animals on the prairie, who are being encroached upon by humans and their world of steel and glass, is clearly equated by Le Guin with the fate of Native Americans. The animals are kept sufficiently animal and foreign compared to Myra, leading to questions on the nature of the world described (maybe its all just a comatose hallucination or an after wold of Myra, induced by the plane crash?), but straight answers are not to be found.
Love and grief being universal and hard is something that a reader could distill from the novella, but I would have like some clearer pointers and some less loose ends to the story, despite the interesting undercurrents.
Are you coming or are you dying there?
I felt quite a few things went over my head, due to myself being European (for instance not knowing the song of the title) but the plight of animals on the prairie, who are being encroached upon by humans and their world of steel and glass, is clearly equated by Le Guin with the fate of Native Americans. The animals are kept sufficiently animal and foreign compared to Myra, leading to questions on the nature of the world described (maybe its all just a comatose hallucination or an after wold of Myra, induced by the plane crash?), but straight answers are not to be found.
Love and grief being universal and hard is something that a reader could distill from the novella, but I would have like some clearer pointers and some less loose ends to the story, despite the interesting undercurrents.
August 3, 2013
[NOTE: I am reviewing not only the illustrated edition of the short story "Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight," but the collection (not listed on Goodreads) BUFFALO GALS & OTHER ANIMAL PRESENCES. Look for it on Amazon!]
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of America's great living authors, as attested by this gripping collection of ecologically-themed short fiction, ranging from humorous poems to novelettes, from sci-fi to fantasy to experimental fiction.
The eponymous "Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight" is rightfully the centerpiece of the book, an inspired interrogation of humanity's relationship to the rest of the animal community. But there's much to love and to ponder over here. Of particular interest to this amateur linguist were "The Author of the Acacia Seeds & Other Extracts from the Journal of Therolinguistics" (set in an alternate/future universe in which animal language has been decoded), "Mazes" (animal behavior experiments from the perspective of the "mouse"), and "She Unnames Them" (an eco-feminist counterpoint to a Tolkienian reading of language origins in Genesis).
But the story that left the deepest imprint on me was "Vaster than Empires and More Slow," a harrowing, unnerving, but ultimately cautiously optimistic tale of interplanetary and internal exploration set in the same universe as The Left Hand of Darkness. Here as elsewhere in the collection, Le Guin demosntrates her mastery of any genre she puts her hand to and proves herself a storyteller of the highest caliber.
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of America's great living authors, as attested by this gripping collection of ecologically-themed short fiction, ranging from humorous poems to novelettes, from sci-fi to fantasy to experimental fiction.
The eponymous "Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight" is rightfully the centerpiece of the book, an inspired interrogation of humanity's relationship to the rest of the animal community. But there's much to love and to ponder over here. Of particular interest to this amateur linguist were "The Author of the Acacia Seeds & Other Extracts from the Journal of Therolinguistics" (set in an alternate/future universe in which animal language has been decoded), "Mazes" (animal behavior experiments from the perspective of the "mouse"), and "She Unnames Them" (an eco-feminist counterpoint to a Tolkienian reading of language origins in Genesis).
But the story that left the deepest imprint on me was "Vaster than Empires and More Slow," a harrowing, unnerving, but ultimately cautiously optimistic tale of interplanetary and internal exploration set in the same universe as The Left Hand of Darkness. Here as elsewhere in the collection, Le Guin demosntrates her mastery of any genre she puts her hand to and proves herself a storyteller of the highest caliber.
December 31, 2018
A surprising, sweet and heartbreaking little tale. I loved the entire ensemble, everyone had such huge personalities and direct affect on the protagonist.
July 11, 2012
A very interesting and mostly well-written collection by Ursula Le Guin. I think I'm at the point now where I believe Le Guin is singularly gifted to look at things from the "other" perspective. It's incredible how insightful she is and how believable her insights are, even towards things which for all we know have no perspectives at all. This collection of short stories and poems is mostly intended to display a novel point of view for animals, plant-life, and even geology, as well as, I believe, strengthen our human understanding of our interdependence on all of those other areas of life that we often either forget or simply treat as tools. Ultimately, I think Le Guin achieves those goals fantastically. It's an interesting read with lots of variety and intriguing ideas that leave you thinking for a long time to come. Well worth the read if you're interested in considering new perspectives!
August 28, 2017
Read as part of The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin
This was written like a Native-American fable with animals being physically personified and other weird story-telling elements. It felt like there was a deeper meaning behind it all, but I just couldn't figure it out exactly. It's definitely got something to do with the juxtaposition of how people live now compared to how they used to, ie in tune with nature, but that's as far as I got. It's written well enough, albeit quite confusingly at times and so I kept waiting for the hat to drop, for everything to click into place. It never did.
This was written like a Native-American fable with animals being physically personified and other weird story-telling elements. It felt like there was a deeper meaning behind it all, but I just couldn't figure it out exactly. It's definitely got something to do with the juxtaposition of how people live now compared to how they used to, ie in tune with nature, but that's as far as I got. It's written well enough, albeit quite confusingly at times and so I kept waiting for the hat to drop, for everything to click into place. It never did.
April 13, 2017
I've only read the eponymous magical realism novelette. Just wonderful! Review at my blog.
May 19, 2009
I've taught "The Wife's Story" for years, and it is just a delight to re-read the thing. The story catches lazy readers off-guard, and each reading just adds to the sheen of Le Guinn's characterization.
September 2, 2025
Le Guin explores identity is such interesting ways.
November 19, 2022
Once again I pulled this book from the shelf thinking I would give it as a gift, but I think it is going back on the shelf for a while longer.
Original Review --
This is a story by Le Guin, beautifully illustrated by Susan Seddon Boulet. A young girl named Myra but called Gal by coyote is in an airplane that crashes. She is saved by Coyote and taken to a town, where the old people live. They all look like humans to her, although with some odd characteristics. They all dress like her - in blue jeans and tops. Blue Jay mends her eye, with a little help from Coyote. Gal decides to live with Coyote, even though Coyote has some rather peculiar habits. But Gal is drawn to the new people ….
This is a beautiful story, just as you would expect from Le Guin. It can be read on many levels -- from children to seniors. And Boulet's illustrations are amazing.
I bought this first edition a few years ago. I pulled it off the shelf thinking I would pass it on to a book lover with young children. But perhaps I will wait a year or two more.
Original Review --
This is a story by Le Guin, beautifully illustrated by Susan Seddon Boulet. A young girl named Myra but called Gal by coyote is in an airplane that crashes. She is saved by Coyote and taken to a town, where the old people live. They all look like humans to her, although with some odd characteristics. They all dress like her - in blue jeans and tops. Blue Jay mends her eye, with a little help from Coyote. Gal decides to live with Coyote, even though Coyote has some rather peculiar habits. But Gal is drawn to the new people ….
This is a beautiful story, just as you would expect from Le Guin. It can be read on many levels -- from children to seniors. And Boulet's illustrations are amazing.
I bought this first edition a few years ago. I pulled it off the shelf thinking I would pass it on to a book lover with young children. But perhaps I will wait a year or two more.
September 18, 2014
The title story of this book is one of my favorite pieces by Ursula Le Guin, who is one of my favorite authors of all time. Le Guin is such a successful world-builder, I didn't immediately catch on that it took place in the American Southwest. My copy of the book is so old that it is beginning to disintegrate; when I finished the title story this time around, I was actually brought to tears.
Other works in the book are also worthwhile, most notably "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow."
Other works in the book are also worthwhile, most notably "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow."
June 16, 2010
I have the older version, without the Susan Seddon Boulet artwork, but with a dozen other short stories and bits of poetry in one volume. I've only read the title story and a few of the poems; five stars for Ursula LeGuin's trademark voice, for the fabulous intro/commentary, and for making me tear up at the end.
January 30, 2013
I love this! What a gem!
December 11, 2024
I will admit that while reading this, I was not immediately aware of the parallel drawn between Native Americans and the 'Old People' of this story. But upon reading that analysis, my appreciation for this book gains a new depth that I don't think is unearned because I was too dumb to pick up on it the first read-through.
I have never read a story like this. The way Le Guin depicts--I'm uncomfortable calling it this but perhaps it is fitting--science-fiction elements into her stories without over explanation or too much world-building, but ALSO without causing frustration in the reader, is astounding to me. The confusion in the beginning drew me in immediately, the characters felt magical yet also real. I'll admit that the value I got from this story is more from analyzing Le Guin's worldbuilding and writing ability than the actual 'message' of the story, but the story and its themes were also compelling and well-thought-out as well.
I have never read a story like this. The way Le Guin depicts--I'm uncomfortable calling it this but perhaps it is fitting--science-fiction elements into her stories without over explanation or too much world-building, but ALSO without causing frustration in the reader, is astounding to me. The confusion in the beginning drew me in immediately, the characters felt magical yet also real. I'll admit that the value I got from this story is more from analyzing Le Guin's worldbuilding and writing ability than the actual 'message' of the story, but the story and its themes were also compelling and well-thought-out as well.
March 9, 2025
A Wonderful Journey in Native American Folklore with a Trickster
Le Guin's novella "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" has a young place crash survivor, Myra ,rescued by an anthropomorphic Coyote and nursed back to health by Coyote and her cadre of animal/human friends. It's a lovely little tale touching on creation myths, identity, relation to the land, and the inevitable interlopers.
Le Guin's novella "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" has a young place crash survivor, Myra ,rescued by an anthropomorphic Coyote and nursed back to health by Coyote and her cadre of animal/human friends. It's a lovely little tale touching on creation myths, identity, relation to the land, and the inevitable interlopers.
March 13, 2025
A LOT of the mythological resonances went right over my head as (probably quite tellingly) this tale deals with elements of North American Mythos that haven't been as exported and made ubiquitous around the world.
July 26, 2020
My review of this great Le Guin story is here, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I didn't much care for the art in this edition -- but the story is WONDERFUL. Six stars!
I didn't much care for the art in this edition -- but the story is WONDERFUL. Six stars!
February 7, 2023
this was super cool i loved the crosshatching and coyote is a milf loml <3
the use of indigenous mythologies, phases and rebirth, perception.. it's all so good my brain is munching on it furiously
the use of indigenous mythologies, phases and rebirth, perception.. it's all so good my brain is munching on it furiously
Read
January 17, 2025This story is *significantly* more enjoyable (and makes a lot more sense) after taking 10 hits of the penjamin in quick succession.
July 27, 2015
I'd be interested to see this in a collection with Ursula Vernon's Jackalope Wives, and to ask Ms. Vernon if she'd ever read this piece before. The themes aren't exactly identical, but are somewhat similar in their setting/mythology-- but I'm sure this comes from their familiarity with anthropology and southwestern Native American cultures. Both are great stories, of course.
Found this book in the children's section of HPB. Clearly, they didn't read this before shelving it.
Found this book in the children's section of HPB. Clearly, they didn't read this before shelving it.
November 14, 2016
Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight is a cross between an inner journey and a vision quest. Ursula Le Guin spins a fantastic tale of a young girl lost in the desert after an accident. The child is swept up into the lives and culture of the animal folk who inhabit the surreal world she finds herself in. The book is all the more intriguing because of the illustrations flawlessly rendered by the incomparable Susan Seddon Boulet. Fabulous escapism.
January 13, 2020
Since the 1970s, when I began reading Ursula Le Guin's books, she has been an inspiration for me, as a writer and as a person. I can recommend any of her books, but above all The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, Always Coming Home, as well as her two collections of essays, The Language of the Night and Dancing at the Edge of the World. She is a wonderfully imaginative and deeply humane writer.
March 1, 2015
A great LeGuin novella with gorgeous !!! illustrations by Boulet !!!
June 14, 2017
A powerful, enchanting read. When it's time to learn, read this one.
March 31, 2018
I'm on a Le Guin binge. Each book brings new delights.
June 18, 2023
A refreshing, funny, and profound story. Young Myra “falls from the sky” after a plane crash and is found by the trickster Coyote, who takes her back to the little town under the overhanging rock. Coyote tells Myra there are two kinds of people, those here before European conquest and those who came after, but since she is the creator of all people, she lives with both the old and the new. The town is full of the first people, all archetypes of their species like Mrs. Chipmunk, Grandmother Spider, Blue Jay, etc., though there are some new people as well like Horse (who describes human towns as holes). The whole thing is told in the style of a children’s story except for Coyote, who is crass, dirty, and sexually promiscuous. Coyote’s conversations with her poop is hysterical. Boulet’s soft, dreamy illustrations combining the forms of animals and humans perfectly compliment Le Guin’s lean and straight-forward prose, adding a spiritual, shamanistic art to the mythical, anthropomorphic setting. It is a story reveling in the innocence, connection, and magic of the times when humans lived with the earth instead of on it and railing against the destructive forces of greed, industry, and progress, all without being didactic. A great story made all the more powerful with Boulet’s paintings.
June 15, 2023
A beautiful, singing love letter to all things that are alive, but not human.
Through animal, human, and plant interaction; Le Guin details the lack of empathy in modern life. Still, not a single story or poem in this collection is reproachful or angry. She replaces abrasive emotions with whimsy and hope. It works wonderfully.
I admit that I was underwhelmed but almost every poem in the collection. Where Le Guin shines is in her characters, so she loses her biggest strength in poetry writing. The poems are the sole reason for the four stars.
Now the short stories, I would give them 10 stars if I could! May's Lion, Schroeder's Cat, and Vaster Than Empires and More Slow are INCREDIBLE! I was sucked into Vaster Than Empires. How were seven characters so vivid in just 30 pages? It was so many wonderful things, but for such a deep and thoughtful story, it was surprisingly fun. It may be my favorite short story ever.
The secret gem of this collection? Le Guin writes brief introductions for EVERY SINGLE STORY! Heavenly. It was a wonderful glimpse into her inspiration and her process. She's an all-time great, and even though I never met her, I miss her presence on this earth.
Through animal, human, and plant interaction; Le Guin details the lack of empathy in modern life. Still, not a single story or poem in this collection is reproachful or angry. She replaces abrasive emotions with whimsy and hope. It works wonderfully.
I admit that I was underwhelmed but almost every poem in the collection. Where Le Guin shines is in her characters, so she loses her biggest strength in poetry writing. The poems are the sole reason for the four stars.
Now the short stories, I would give them 10 stars if I could! May's Lion, Schroeder's Cat, and Vaster Than Empires and More Slow are INCREDIBLE! I was sucked into Vaster Than Empires. How were seven characters so vivid in just 30 pages? It was so many wonderful things, but for such a deep and thoughtful story, it was surprisingly fun. It may be my favorite short story ever.
The secret gem of this collection? Le Guin writes brief introductions for EVERY SINGLE STORY! Heavenly. It was a wonderful glimpse into her inspiration and her process. She's an all-time great, and even though I never met her, I miss her presence on this earth.
October 23, 2021
Novelette originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1987. 1988 Hugo Award winner and 1988 Nebula Award finalist.
In a gentle fable reminiscent of indigenous peoples' folktales, a girl survives a plane crash in the Southwestern U.S. desert and is cared for and ultimately lives with the trickster Coyote who appears as a human woman to the girl. In the same village live other animal spirits who help the girl and have adventures with her. Like all good folktales, there are moral lessons to be learned.
I read this story in the anthology The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). 34 pages
In a gentle fable reminiscent of indigenous peoples' folktales, a girl survives a plane crash in the Southwestern U.S. desert and is cared for and ultimately lives with the trickster Coyote who appears as a human woman to the girl. In the same village live other animal spirits who help the girl and have adventures with her. Like all good folktales, there are moral lessons to be learned.
I read this story in the anthology The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). 34 pages
November 9, 2025
A novelette about a stranded, wounded girl helped by animal-characters from native folklore from the American southwest. Not hugely unique territory, but I guess most of the other examples I’m thinking of came later. Le Guin brings a unique touch of course: I like her approach on why the animals are human-like, and I like how she doesn’t shy from the things animals are up to. (If any parents powered through the “not for children” warning in the description, or the strategically-upfront cursing, they’ll have a blast reading the coyote incest aloud to their young’ns.)
This wasn’t originally printed with the Susan Seddon Boulet paintings, but she was inspired by the story and initiated it herself a few years later. Her paintings are impressionistic, and will ignore the physical descriptions just mentioned on the mirroring page (and setting every daylight scene to a nocturnal glow). No problem there, they embrace a strange off-ness that feels like an appropriate complement to the non-humanity of the story, even if they’re a magnitude more dreamy than the grounded physical descriptions in the prose.
This wasn’t originally printed with the Susan Seddon Boulet paintings, but she was inspired by the story and initiated it herself a few years later. Her paintings are impressionistic, and will ignore the physical descriptions just mentioned on the mirroring page (and setting every daylight scene to a nocturnal glow). No problem there, they embrace a strange off-ness that feels like an appropriate complement to the non-humanity of the story, even if they’re a magnitude more dreamy than the grounded physical descriptions in the prose.
October 8, 2021
A wonderful fantasy exploring the myth infused world between humans and the other animals. You'll recognize many of the characters from Native American stories. The story is told through the eyes of a little girl, but the tale is not for children, but for the child in each of us. It is set amongst Susan Seddon Boulet's beautiful and imaginative art. It reminds me of a Gaiman graphic novel. It has adult sexual themes, death, and mild profanities. It is quite moving and a gentle walk in the borderlands of human relations with the rest of the animals in Spider's great web.
February 5, 2022
I liked it. Didn't feel to preachy about nature and humanity, but portrayed some interesting scenes and characters. The ambiguity of what was happening was bothersome at first, but it all worked out in the end. I liked how Coyote was kinda fucked up and not the best mother, yet Gal stuck around her. I kinda am bummed with the ending and the child just having to go back to humanity, unlikely to see Coyote again.
Fav bits: loved the concept of folklore animals being these personified figures
Least fav bits: maybe the ending, felt a bit unsatisfying
Fav bits: loved the concept of folklore animals being these personified figures
Least fav bits: maybe the ending, felt a bit unsatisfying
Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews