Village: A Novel - by Stanley Crawford (Hardcover)

About the Book

This rollicking ride through a single day in the ill-fated village of San Marcos will leave you reeling with laughter, even as you cringe at the misadventures of the hapless Porter Clapp and his pitiable wife, Steph; the jaundiced Onesimo Moro and his ever-watchful spouse, Isabel; and the rest of Crawford's riotous cast. At this story's beginning, a meeting notice from the state water agency, posted at the local store, seems to portend an imminent threat to the valleys precious acequias. But perhaps more ominous--at least to the paranoid Clapp--is the possibility of the outside world meddling with the isolation, blissful or not, of this remote Hispanic plaza town. As the time of the meeting looms, we follow the characters through the day and become immersed in a place unnervingly familiar to anyone who has lived in Northern New Mexico. Crawford spares no one from his acerbic wit and skewering prose, yet there remains an unmistakable affection for the marvelously dysfunctional community and the very faults that he so eloquently parodies. As the tale unfolds, we dread the incipient threat from outside the valley less and begin to hope that something will deflect the downward spiral every character seems doomed to follow--but nothing anticipates or prepares us for the denouement that Crawford skillfully delivers, leaving us punch drunk with mirth.

Book Synopsis

This rollicking ride through a single day in the ill-fated village of San Marcos will leave you reeling with laughter, even as you cringe at the misadventures of the hapless Porter Clapp and his pitiable wife, Steph; the jaundiced Onésimo Moro and his ever-watchful spouse, Isabel; and the rest of Crawford's riotous cast. At this story's beginning, a meeting notice from the state water agency, posted at the local store, seems to portend an imminent threat to the valley's precious acequias. But perhaps more ominous--at least to the paranoid Clapp--is the possibility of the outside world meddling with the isolation, blissful or not, of this remote Hispanic plaza town. As the time of the meeting looms, we follow the characters through the day and become immersed in a place unnervingly familiar to anyone who has lived in Northern New Mexico. Crawford spares no one from his acerbic wit and skewering prose, yet there remains an unmistakable affection for the marvelously dysfunctional community and the very faults that he so eloquently parodies. As the tale unfolds, we dread the incipient threat from outside the valley less and begin to hope that something will deflect the downward spiral every character seems doomed to follow--but nothing anticipates or prepares us for the denouement that Crawford skillfully delivers, leaving us punch drunk with mirth.

Review Quotes

. . . a quiet masterpiece. -High Country News

While refusing to make sense of the world he has conjured, Crawford has created quite a strange, wonderful ode in its honor.
-Publishers Weekly Village . . is, in Crawford's deft hands, a well tuned chorus of diverse voices.
-Santa Fe New Mexican

A droll, intimate portrait of a colorful northern New Mexico community, piece by peculiar piece. . . Crawford's precise anthropological observations betray a fascination and fondness for the life ways of the community.
-New Mexico MagazineVillage is vintage Crawford. It is a wickedly perceptive, dyspeptic but loving, often hilarious, often tragic, portrait of one day in San Marcos-a place that doesn't exist in only one place in rural New Mexico, but ultimately becomes more real than its models. There are no heroes (except perhaps the long-suffering mayordomo of the ditch), but a lot of very human humans who are slowly revealed as surfaces give way to depths. A great read for those who are familiar with Norteño culture and those who are not.
-Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Lure of the Local

This is a truly wonderful novel-a delightful portrait of an utterly engaging cast from a northern New Mexico village. Anyone interested either in the tragicomedy of the human condition or in the real life of New Mexico should get a copy right away. A profound and enchanting new classic from the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
-Henry Shukman, award-winning author of Archangel (poems)

"This novel, Village, is vintage Crawford . . . In short, true to life . . . love, death, sex, depression, poverty, ditch cleaning, love of automobiles, teenage craziness, bits of euphoria . . . all mingle with the natural world through which the human community stumbles . . . The book is a rich portrait, with millions of wonderful details."
-John Nichols, best-selling author of The Milagro Beanfield War

Stanley Crawford has crafted a tale in the vein of Tony Hillerman's The Taos Bank Robbery and John Nichol's The Milagro Beanfield War, but with complete originality. This loving portrait of life in a northern New Mexico hamlet is as amusing as it is accurate. Village is a splendid read. Orale!
-Cheryl Alters Jamison, award-winning author of Tasting New Mexico, The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook, and regular contributor to New Mexico Magazine

About the Author

Stanley G. Crawford is a writer and a farmer. He was born in 1937 and was educated at the University of Chicago and at the Sorbonne. He is the author of seven novels, including Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine, Travel Notes, Gascoyne, and Some Instructions, a classic satire on all the sanctimonious marriage manuals ever produced.

He is also the author of two memoirs: A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small Farm in New Mexico and Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. He has written numerous articles in various publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Double Take and Country Living.

Stanley Crawford is co-owner with his wife, Rose Mary Crawford, of El Bosque Farm in Dixon, New Mexico, where they have lived since 1969.