The Horse of a Different Color

Howard Waldrop’s stories are keys to the secret world of the stories behind the stories... or perhaps stories between the known stories. From “The Wolfman of Alcatraz” to a horrifying Hansel and Gretel, from “The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew” to the Vancean richness of a “Frogskin Cap,” this new collection is a wunderkammer of strangeness.

The title story, “The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode in On)” is a masterpiece that crashes together aged-vaudevillian Manny Marks (who changed his name from Marx so that his brothers couldn’t ride to success on his coattails), “the best goddammed horse-suit act there ever was,” and the story of two men and their hunt for the holy grail. It’s a uniquely American take on the Arthurian legend that Waldrop takes to places (theaters, diners, resthomes) that he could do.

Howard Waldrop also provides an introduction to the book in his inimitable manner as well as Afterwords to most of the stories.

Contents:

• Introduction: Old Guys With Busted Gaskets
• Kindermarchen
• “The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew...”
• Ninieslando” Warriors
• Frogskin Cap
• Avast, Abaft!
• Thin, On the Ground
• The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode in On)
• The Wolfman of Alcatraz
• Why Then Ile Fit You
• The King of Where-I-Go