Description: In these 18 elegantly terse stories, Shepard taps the same wellsprings that have made him an acclaimed--and distinctly American--playwright: sex and regret, the yearning for a frontier, the comic gulf of misapprehension between men and women, and the even deeper gulf that separates men from their true selves.
Review Quotes: "Extraordinary by any measure. . . . With this collection [Shepard] becomes a storyteller in the purest sense." --The New York Times Book Review
"Devastatingly artful. . . . Brutal and satisfying. . . . In their careful craft and mysterious revelations, the best stories in Great Dream of Heaven recall . . . Chekhov." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "Strong emotions . . . make a Sam Shepard story as familiar as an old leather saddle. . . . Shepard's terse, lyrical style excels. . . . There's something broadly American . . . about the frustrations his characters feel." --San Francisco Chronicle "Shocking. . . . Often funny. . . . Shepard's writing is consistently excellent." --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "His playwriting skills . . . make his fiction shimmer with a brutal clarity." --Los Angeles Times Book Review