Jan Reid |
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The Bullet Meant for Me
"Simultaneously haunting and heartwarming, this memoir brings the horror of random (or almost random) violence fully to life and demonstrates how one man used that experience as a stepping stone toward his own intellectual enlightenment." - Washington Post
"Jan Reid's memoir is a powerful story of love, loss, and one kind of redemption. Living to tell such a story is an accomplishment in itself, but it takes an even greater talent to write it so beautifully." - Abraham Verghese
"There's a wealth of strong imagery in this memoir, but what truly generates its power is the magnetism of decency that allows the writer, and vicariously the reader, to rise beyond fear and chaos." - Denver Post
"How rare they seem in the world, these too-few stories of redemption and dignity. The Bullet Meant for Me is alternately nightmarish and light-filled, and impossible to turn away from." - Rick Bass
Rio Grande
"Trying to wrestle the Rio Grande into one book is a foolhardy undertaking, not only because of the river's complexity, but because so many writers have attempted the feat before. But this new collection from Jan Reid is a tribute to the river rivaled only by Paul Horgan's 1954 masterpiece, Great River." -High Country News
"Jan Reid has put together a large, beautiful anthology that's sort of a love song to the river." - Bryan Woolley, Dallas Morning News
Splendor in the Short Grass
"Grover Lewis, who died in 1997, was indeed 'the most wonderful writer nobody ever heard of.' Writing for Rolling Stone in the early '70s, he almost single-handedly invented the movie set piece, and no one's ever improved on his flint-eyed profiles of Sam Peckinpah and the Allman Brothers. But the best piece here is his searing memoir of his white-trash Texas parents, who died in what was ruled a double homicide. Etched in acid and heart's blood, it is a terse masterpiece." - Newsweek
"Through talent, sheer grit, and the alchemy of language, Grover Lewis beat the odds. He transformed his own harsh history into a searing prose legend that no one who reads 'Splendor' will ever forget." - Tom Nolan, Los Angeles Times
"His shadows are worth preserving, and so are his harsh lights." - Roy Blount, Jr., New York Times Book Review
The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock
"Jan Reid's The Improbably Rise of Redneck Rock is the only book I know that tells the real story of my honky tonk heroes Willie, Billy Joe, Jerry Jeff, Kinky, Janis, and the incredible scenes in Austin in the late '60s and early '70s. This is the real deal, a must read for the people from the country that love their music and a must for the city dwellers who need this music." - Dennis Hopper
"Reid's book is a classic, and its prescience is a thing of wonder." - Robert Draper, GQ
The Hammer Comes Down (with Lou Dubose)
"A terrific book ... a masterly account ... More than a compelling read, it's a public service." - Dallas Morning News.
"The most fun to be had from this book will be deciding which of Delay's antics is most scurrilous." - Washington Monthly
"An important ... eye-opening look at how extreme right-wing political views are seeping into our culture and affecting our lives." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Deerinwater
"Engrossing ... Reid has a fine ear for the language of young punks and the stories of oldtimers. He has everything down, from the interior of the Cadillac Inn to the look of mesquites and sky." - Dallas Morning News
"A complex yet always enthralling drama of an oil-rich Panhandle town." - Publishers Weekly