“A Cowboy Like Me“
By Thomas Edward Shaw
World History is based on local life. Based in Nevada, Thomas (Eddie) Shaw’s collection of short stories are a memoir of sorts. In a semi-fictional account of childhood, discovery, and death, old timers may recognize the place they had moved to – to escape their pasts. Only the names of the guilty have been changed.
Set in a landscape of sagebrush, mountain bluebirds and rivers that disappear, these eleven stores are blessed with abrupt endings. In A Song for the Son of a Buckaroo, a young man recounts how Kate, Karl, Alice, and he take a late night swim in the Humboldt River. Later they go to town, to dance until dawn wearing only their underwear. In Elko, a cowboy can be who he wants to be. But that, by itself, doesn’t fix what is wrong.
The story, Pretenders, explains that to ruin a good man’s reputation is worse than murder. No matter – good old Harry ain’t no cowboy and that’s for sure. It was Shaw’s way of paying a bad guy back.
Reading through Night Shift, with the protagonist Pee Wee, the reader will meet Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, close up – just for a moment. Then Pee Wee is going to get the surprise of his life.
Reviews:
“A Cowboy Like Me is very good stuff. Night Shift and Skunk at Mud Lake are absorbing pieces.” — Wilber Stevens, Interim Magazine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“The author is a combination of Will Rodgers, Mark Twain and rock musician, all in one. His dry humor and unique perspective on life brings to the American scene, a freshness worth reading.” — Gilbert Ralston – Educator/screen writer
According to the author
In this book there is no mention of electric corsets, automatic bed canopies, toilet masks, or Boston garters. He claims, “A Cowboy Like Me will neither prolong life nor cure acne. If it inspires the reader, it is probably for the wrong reason.”
In other words, this book is specific, startling, sometimes safe, and absolutely fraud proof.
Thomas (Eddie) Shaw grew up in the small town of Carson City, Nevada. Having lived in many places, he returned to Nevada and now works as a writer and publisher. A Cowboy Like Me was his first book.