A Pause in the Desert

Oliver La Farge covers many aspects of everyday life in these sixteen stories, which range from an old man facing death alone in the Mexican bush to some boys facing the responsibilities of life at St. Peter's school; from the science fiction world of computing machines to the world of gourmets; and from the violent death of a man off the Rhode Island coast to the quiet death of a marriage in New Mexico. The variety of stories in this wide-ranging collection are sure to fit the taste and mood and any reader interested in the human condition through the clear grace of La Farge's timeless writing. Born in 1901, Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge is ranked among the literary lions of American Southwestern letters. Since his death in 1963, his reputation has continued to grow and new honors have been added to his name. "Laughing Boy," a novel of Navajo life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, putting his name in lights before he was 30.