num_pages: 172
description: An extraordinary work of long fiction from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright  a tour de force of memory mystery death and life.Sam Shepard's searing evocative narrative opens with a man in his house at dawn surrounded by aspens and by coyotes cackling far away as he quietly navigates the distance between present and past. More and more memory is overtaking him: in his mind he sees himself in a movie-set trailer his young face staring back at him in a mirror surrounded by lightbulbs. In his dreams and in visions he sees his late father  sometimes in miniature sometimes flying planes sometimes at war. By turns he sees the bygone America of his childhood  the farmland and the feedlots the rail yards and the diners  and most hauntingly his father's young girlfriend with whom he also became involved setting into motion a tragedy that has stayed with him. His complex interiority is filtered through views of mountains and deserts as he drives across the country propelled by jazz Benzedrine rock and roll and a restlessness born out of exile. The rhythms of theater the language of poetry and a flinty humor combine in this stunning meditation on the nature of experience at once celebratory surreal poignant and unforgettable.
language: English
title: The One Inside
publisher: Knopf