BOOKS | Rancho Wierdo

‎ Bootstrap Press, 2008

Illustrations by Haeri Yoo

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Rancho Weirdo

“A masterful collection of new work from a time-tested author.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Life on the U.S./Mexican border presents a clash of cultures and expectations that is explored with insight and dark humor in Laura Chester’s new collection of short stories, Rancho Weirdo (Bootstrap Press). Chester’s short fiction, accompanied by Haeri Yoo’s quirky drawings, challenge our perceptions of the new Southwest—which includes snowbirds, illegal immigrants, Native Americans, ranchers, and cowboys—whose fates intertwine in the harsh and beautiful Arizona landscape.

Chester, who lives in a remote area near the border, turns Southwestern stereotypes inside out in these bizarre and often hilarious stories. In Rancho Weirdo when a woman offers food to illegal immigrants, they want a swim and a house tour, or when a New Yorker building a winter home in the desert encounters an Apache Indian’s disturbing spirit, the unanticipated consequences offer Chester an opportunity to examine her characters’ fears. Rancho Weirdo demonstrates an intimate knowledge of the underlying conflicts and comic possibilities inherent in border life.

Instead of preaching from a politically-correct platform, Chester illuminates other prejudices via a wide array of characters, including a Vietnamese student turned manipulative house sitter, a homophobic New York City businessman who finds himself attracted to a Sufi tennis pro who has taken a vow of silence, an African-American personal trainer who caters to the “seagull set,” and a camp for disturbed girls who have barely survived the 9/11 airplane bombings.

According to poet, novelist, and screenwriter Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall, Dalva, and Returning to Earth, “Rancho Weirdo is a wonderful book and will thoroughly enliven any reader of serious fiction.”

Laura Chester has edited six widely-praised literary anthologies, most recently Eros & Equus: A Passion for the Horse (Willow Creek Press), with exquisite black and white photographs by Donna DeMari. Chester has selected prose and poetry from such writers as John Hawkes, Jane Smiley, Charles Bukowski, and D.H. Lawrence, that delves into the sensual relationship between human and horse.

Laura Chester has written many volumes of poetry, prose, and nonfiction. Most recently, Willow Creek Press published her first two children’s books, Hiding Glory, and Marvel the Marvelous, as well as Heartbeat for Horses.Donna DeMari and Chester also collaborated on the nonfiction book Holy Personal: Looking for Small Private Places of Worship, with an introduction by Thomas Moore. Publisher’s Weekly called this piece of Americana, “A fascinating, in-depth study of how spirituality can express itself in that most intimate of worlds, the home.” A few of Chester’s other books include Lupus Novice, The Story of the Lake, Kingdom Come, and Sparks. She lives in Patagonia, Arizona, as well as the Berkshires of Massachusetts.

“With vibrant, even sassy language that cajoles and swings, the stories dance along to unknown destinations, each as deliciously complete as the next. Switching up between first-person narrative, experimental writing, even shifting narrative monologues, Chester’s many voices are natural and convincing. The stories are accompanied by the simple, surrealist sketches and mixed-media art of Haeri Yoo, a rising star whose work ranges from the bizarre to the gritty, the erotic to the preternatural; they provide the perfect accompaniment to this book. … A masterful collection of new work from a time-tested author.”

—Kirkus Discoveries, (read review)

“Rancho Weirdo is a wonderful book and will thoroughly enliven any reader of serious fiction.”

—Jim Harrison

“Every one of these compositions is unusual, inventive, entertaining, and sometimes even shocking. Most are to some extent mysterious. Whatever your taste in literature, it seems likely that you'll find something here to whet your appetite for short works.  Echoes of Kafka and Poe and Woody Allen may suggest themselves to a reader's bemusement, but boredom will never be a factor.”

—Joant L. Cannon, Senior Women Web

“Rancho Weirdo contains short and powerful bursts of quirky short fiction that will get readers—and even writers—dreaming about new possibilities for American literature, which today seems to be deeper in the doldrums than ever before. Chester’s book is bound to transform your idea of what you can expect from a story strangely and expertly told.”

—Jarret Keene, Tuscon Weekly, “Face the Strange: Laura Chester’s quirky Rancho Weirdo may cause you to dream of new possibilities”

“In this collection of stories, poet Laura Chester explores the boundaries between civilization and nature in surprising, funny, and lyrical ways, making deep statements about man’s inability to fit itself into nature’s puzzle. The strange and charming illustrations by Haeri Yoo enhance the off-kilter surreality of Chester’s stories. Chester’s quirky protagonists and their foibles make for a delightful reading experience, and the characters’ desires and inability to make the best of their odd situations will have many readers shaking their heads in recognition.

“… Chester’s stories are short and sweet but with a bitter afterbite. Like poetry, they tend to be small, dense, and meaningful. They leave readers with a wisp of a feeling that blossoms as one ponders them. The characters can often seem rather flighty and ungrounded, but they are the perfect foils for the heavy theme of man versus the unknown.”

—Maria Mundaca, Hipster Book Club

“At times disturbing or monstrous, other times tender or funny, we are drawn into a world where strange anxieties are explored, misplaced expectations let down, and prejudices exposed. These are not pretty or gentle worlds. … There is a clear sense of voice in all [Chester’s] stories: a Southwest drawl or the voice of a child or teenager and I found the writing fast, vivid and edgy.

“… Rancho Weirdo is a beautifully produced collection. The stories are complemented by 50 beautiful colour drawings by Korean artist Haeri Yoo. These images are simple, stark, oddly violent and sexual, part human, part animal, with sometimes unidentifiable pain. They are not illustrations for the stories, although the disturbing, and sad quality of many of the images reflects something of the themes. These drawings are a real treat and make this collection of short stories quite unique.”

—Annie Clarkson, The Short Review