ALONE WITH THE OWL. Minneapolis: New Rivers Press, 2000. ISBN 0-89823-203-1

Sample story. Contact Alan Davis. Back to his home page.

Praise for Alan Davis

A magical collection of stories, one of the best I've encountered in years. Tim O'Brien
He has an original talent, a feel for action, a sparse yet vivid style, a sharp satirical sense, a keen eye and ear for the follies of the age. Walker Percy
Alan Davis's voice transports and sings. I kept thinking that I wouldn't mind winding up as a character in one of his stories. Odds are, he'd do me justice. Dorothy Allison, New York Times Book Review

Advance Praise for Alone with the Owl

Although these stories occur in many different parts of the country, they are aesthetically shaped by the landscape of Louisiana, the muddy delta and the oily bayou-the bottomland to which all things flow. We encounter the anger of the father, the ravages of mental illness and alcoholism, the unspoken depths of desire; but we move through these murky landscapes easily, with our owl-like narrators to protect us. As one character notes, this is "blood fiction," a "museum to the rhythm of the heart." There is transformation and rebirth at the center of these stories: characters who imagine "driving past the amusement park on the edge of town into the Deep South . . . to the palm trees and banana trees and the steam bath humidity that might cleanse every pore." And, finally, these characters are wise travelers-nostalgic for those small towns "where so many people believe that destiny is a thing we can control . . . that the right vitamins can make you never get sick," and dreaming of they day when they can think of themselves as people who have , if only momentarily. As one character notes, this is "blood fiction," a "museum to the rhythm of the heart." There is transformation and rebirth at the center of these stories: characters who imagine "driving past the amusement park on the edge of town into the Deep South . . . to the palm trees and banana trees and the steambath humidity that might cleanse every pore." And, finally, these characters are wise travelers-nostalgic for those small towns "where so many people believe that destiny is a thing we can control . . . that the right vitamins can make you never get sick," and dreaming of they day when they can think of themselves as people who have arrived, if only momentarily.

--Debra Marquart, author of Everything's A Verb

In "Alone with the Owl," each story works as a different movement in a symphony--some stories move in a cheerful allegro mode, others in a sorrowful andante, and together they cover the whole range of emotions and attitudes, from carnivalesque playfulness to lyrical and introspective sadness, with a lot of wit, humor, and wisdom. In this collection, I have met a gallery of characters more thoroughly and deeply than I do in half a year of my ordinary existence. Why meet people at a party or at work when you can meet them in this insightful book much better? My favorite line comes from the mouth of a sergeant, who tells his soldiers on a mission abroad, "These people need our help, because we're Americans, and they're not." Buy this book and enjoy!

--Josip Novakavich, author of Salvation & Other Disasters

It is a rare and potent pleasure to read the stories of Alan Davis, so moving in their depiction of ordinary people confronted by moments of spiritual and emotional crisis. These are powerful stories, and they work on us in subtle ways, surprising us not so much in turns of plot or depiction of character but instead in their subtle shifts of tone, in their carefully nuanced whispers of insight. Though at a glance these stories might seem similar to many others being written today, in fact they are not, for in their daring and accurate depictions of the inner life, in their moving depictions of the ache for real emotional and spiritual connection in lives of all sorts of apparent connection, Davis shows us something new and real, something we need to hear. Read these stories. Read them carefully. Read them more than once.

- Michael Hettich, author of A Small Boat

Alan Davis's first collection of stories, Rumors from the Lost World, was reviewed by Dorothy Allison in The New York Times Book Review in June 1993. Click on the title for excerpts from that review as well as advance praise from Walker Percy and Tim O'Brien, or click on the checkmark to read the entire review: If you wish, return to Alan Davis's home page.