On an icy day in January 1961, in Bismarck, North Dakota, a sixteen-year-old boy walks home from high school with his best friend, Gene. The sudden sound of sirens startles and excites them, but they don’t have long to wonder what the sound could mean. Soon after seeing police cars parked on their street, the boys learn the shocking truth: hours before, Gene’s father, Raymond Stoddard, walked calmly and purposefully into the state capitol and shot to death a charismatic state senator. Raymond then drove home and hanged himself in his garage. The horrific murder and suicide leave the community reeling. Speculation about Raymond’s motives run rampant. Political scandal, workplace corruption, financial ruin, adultery, and jealousy are all cited as possible catalysts. But in the end, the truth behind the day’s events died with those two men. And for Gene and his friend, the tragedy is a turning point, both in their lives and in their friendship. Nearly forty years later, Gene’s friend, a writer, revisits the tragedy and tries to unravel the mystery behind one man’s inexplicable actions. Through his own recollections and his fiction–sometimes impossible to separate–he attempts to make sense of a senseless act and, in the process, to examine his youth, his friendship with Gene, and the love they both had for a beautiful girl named Marie. Spare, haunting, lyrical, Sundown, Yellow Moon is a piercing study of love and betrayal, grief and desire, youth and remembrance. Using a brilliant, evocative fiction-within-fiction structure, Larry Watson not only brings to life a distinct period in history but, most affectingly, reveals the interplay of memory, secrets, and the passage of time.

“The coolest class on campus” – The New York Times When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, a debate raged. Some celebrated, while many others questioned the choice. How could the world’s most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter who wouldn’t even deign to attend the medal ceremony? In Why Bob Dylan Matters, Harvard Professor Richard F. Thomas answers this question with magisterial erudition. A world expert on Classical poetry, Thomas was initially ridiculed by his colleagues for teaching a course on Bob Dylan alongside his traditional seminars on Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. Dylan’s Nobel Prize brought him vindication, and he immediately found himself thrust into the spotlight as a leading academic voice in all matters Dylanological. Today, through his wildly popular Dylan seminar—affectionately dubbed "Dylan 101"—Thomas is introducing a new generation of fans and scholars to the revered bard’s work. This witty, personal volume is a distillation of Thomas’s famous course, and makes a compelling case for moving Dylan out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and into the pantheon of Classical poets. Asking us to reflect on the question, "What makes a classic?", Thomas offers an eloquent argument for Dylan’s modern relevance, while interpreting and decoding Dylan’s lyrics for readers. The most original and compelling volume on Dylan in decades, Why Bob Dylan Matters will illuminate Dylan’s work for the Dylan neophyte and the seasoned fanatic alike. You’ll never think about Bob Dylan in the same way again.

A study of Dylan's lyric writing by someone who is,both a fan of the performer and schooled in the,appreciation of poetic expression, this volume,covers everything from the early protest songs,to his more mature look at relationships on the,album Blood on the Tracks. the latter part of the,book examines how the older Dylan created a new,song-writing style - a process that began with the,nursery-rhyme-drenched Under the Red Sky and,evolved via his two nineties cover albums to,emerge triumphant in 2001 on Love and Theft.

Abandoned love -- Absolutely sweet Marie -- All along the watchtower -- All the tired horses -- Apple suckling tree -- As I went out one morning -- The ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest -- Billy -- Black Diamond Bay -- Buckets of rain -- Catfish -- Clothes line saga -- Country pie -- Crash on the levee (down in the flood) -- Day of the locusts -- Dear landlord -- Dirge -- Don't ya tell Henry -- Down along the cove -- Drifter's escape --Father of night -- Forever young -- Fourth time around -- George Jackson -- Get your rocks off! -- Goin' to Acapulco -- Going going gone -- Golden loom -- Hazel -- Hurricane -- I am a lonesome hobo -- I dreamed I saw St. Augustine -- I pity the poor immigrant -- I shall be released -- I threw it all away -- I wanna be your lover -- I want you -- I'd have you any time -- Idiot wind -- If dogs run free -- If not for you -- If you see her, say hello -- I'll be your baby tonight -- Isis -- Joey -- John Wesley Harding -- Just like a woman -- Knockin' on heaven's door -- Lay lady lay -- Leopard-skin pill-box hat -- Lily, Rosemary and the jack of hearts -- Living the blues -- Lo and behold! -- Long-distance operator -- The man in me -- Meet me in the morning -- Million dollar bash -- Minstrel boy -- Money blues -- Most likely you go your way (and I'll go mine) -- Mozambique -- Nashville skyline rag -- Never say goodbye -- New morning -- Nobody 'cept you -- Nothing was delivered -- Obviously five believers -- Odds and ends -- Oh, sister -- On a night like this -- One more cup of coffee (valley below) -- One more night -- One more weekend -- One of us must know (sooner or later) -- Open the door, Homer -- Peggy Day -- Please, Mrs Henry -- Pledging my time -- Quinn the Eskimo (the mighty Quinn) -- Rainy day women # 12 & 35 -- Rita May -- Romance in Durango -- Sad-eyed lady of lowlands -- Sara -- Shelter from the storm -- She's your lover now -- Sign on the window -- Silent weekend -- Simple twist of fate -- Something there is about you -- Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again -- Tangled up in blue --Tears of rage -- Tell me, Momma -- Tell me that it isn't true -- Temporary like Achilles -- This wheel's on fire -- Three angels -- Time passes slowly -- Tiny Montgomery -- To be alone with you -- Tonight I'll be staying here with you -- Too much of nothing -- Tough Mama -- Up to me -- Visions Of Johanna -- Wallflower -- Wanted man -- Watching the river flow -- Wedding song -- Went to see the gypsy -- When I paint my masterpiece -- The wicked messenger -- Wigwam -- Winterlude -- Woogie-boogie -- Yea! heavy and a bottle of bread -- You ain't goin' nowhere -- You angel you -- You're a big girl now -- You're gonna make me lonesome when you go.

"Throughout his various stages, Dylan's work reveals an affinity with the Zen worldview, where enlightenment can be attained through self-contemplation and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. Much has been made of Dylan's Christian periods, but never before has a book engaged Dylan's deep and rich oeuvre through a Buddhist lens."--Back cover.