The Fruit of Stone | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Spragg
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $36.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 2054385
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.3 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 1565117093
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781565117099
ASIN: 1565117093
Publication Date: August 5, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Mark Spragg, author of the widely praised memoir Where Rivers Change Direction, sets off his first novel, The Fruit of Stone, with a cacophony of twittering birds. Starlings, sparrows, and magpies punctuate Barnum McEban's glorious morning-after with his best friend's wife, Gretchen. When Gretchen leaves town and her marriage behind, McEban and his bereft friend Bennett follow her letters from post-office boxes in Wyoming to Montana and back. Cutting through the road-trip action and Bennett's tenuous control over his temper and his rifle is the story of McEban's own family. His emotionally closed father, his migraine-riddled mother, the brusque but paternal ranch foreman Ansel, and his grandmother form a parallel tale of life on the ranch: hard work, hard living, and hard times. Spragg spins a good Western yarn and infuses every natural landscape with poetic intention, but the writing drags in these transcendent descriptions. The story reads at its most authentic in the terse dialogue between the two hardened friends; their inability to speak poetically to each other brings out more emotion than a flock of pretty birds. --Emily Russin
Product Description
The Fruit of Stone is the story of the lifelong friendship of two men and their love for the woman who eludes them. Though Gretchen is married to his best friend, McEban has been in love with her since they were children growing up on adjacent ranches in Wyoming. When she leaves her husband for a new life, the two men follow her in an odyssey across the American West that forces truths and reveals the mystical, sometimes fatal bonds of love and loyalty. Muscular, vivid, wise and painful, funny, and true; Mark Spragg's novel is entirely unforgettable.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 A BEAUTIFUL BIT OF WRITING HERE. DON'T MISS THIS ONE! February 20, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I do not read that many novels, but when I do, I want them to be the quality of this one. Spragg has a style that is absolutely lyrical. His descriptions of the country (the Western United States, in this case), of people, animals, towns and motion, are truly amazing. His ability to fascinate you with the simple description of replacing a fence post or setting a trap for rats is rather remarkable. Needless to say, I enjoyed ever word of this book.
The plot, which has been gone over with a fine tooth comb here already, is quite simple. There are two friends. The one friend has always been in love with the other friend's wife. He has a brief affair (one night) with her. The wife suddenly leaves. The two friends began a quest across several states to find the run-a-way wife/lover/girl friend. They travel together with a young Indian girl, her brother, a dog and a blind horse. This is one of those books though that plot does not really matter. It is the writing that counts. Not only is it poetically descriptive, but the author can also be funny. Actually, he is hilarious at times. The conversations between some of the characters call for an instant rereading as you say to yourself "did he/she actually say that?"
More importantly though, as one other reviewer has pointed out, this is a story about love. Love between a man and a woman, love between friends, love of the land, love of home and love of family. The author uses the flash back device and while you are reading the story, you are actually reading two stories; the one taking place here and now, and the flashbacks to the life of the main character(s). This is interesting and well done. Not ever author can pull this off, but Spragg has managed to do so quite well. I hate to classify this one as a modern western, because that would be a bit misleading. Yes, it does take place in the west and is centered on ranches and ranch culture, but it is so much more. It is more the story of people, than anything else.
For an enjoyable read and a look at some very, very good writing, I cannot recommend this one high enough. As a side note...per usual, ignore the nonsense printed her in the small thing by Publisher's Weekly. Per usual they have missed the mark again.
Don Blankenship
Spragg is a master storyteller August 7, 2007
Writers who aspire to create memorable, naturally flowing dialogue would do well to read Mark Spragg's work. Fans of his novels will notice characters in The Fruit of Stone who also appear in An Unfinished Life; Spragg creates characters so seamlessly that I felt as if I was seeing old friends-- welcome friends.
The Fruit of Stone is a coming of age story-- and Spragg's characters show that even 40-something year-old-men and women are still capable of "coming of age."
Beth Fehlbaum
Author,Courage in Patience
"Sometimes the only way to survive life is to find the courage to finally live."
 A BIG disappointment... July 3, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I agree completely that [most of] the writing is magnificent and compelling (why else would I have stayed up reading until 4am?). However, the ending was SO cliched and SO unsatisfying that it seems destined to be a made-for-TV movie. But if you're looking for a Chick Book, read on.
beautiful writing January 17, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a beautifully written book that explores love and friendship in a creative and surprising storyline. It made me laugh out loud several times and read sections aloud to my wife repeatedly. The wordcraft is wonderful.
While there are some things this book that one can question, that seems to miss the point. Mr. Spragg wasn't following my idea of what should make perfect sense or what he should explain. Rather he wrote the story he wanted to tell. I absolutely loved reading it. His character development, dialog and sense of place are exceptional. When the wind changes and the storm blows in and then the rain changes to hail - I was back there again myself, listening to "the sharp snare-drum shatter of the ice pellets against the truck's hood and roof."
love in all its guises January 5, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I read a lot. But I often don't take the time to write reviews. Having just finished Mark Spragg's, The Fruit of Stone I am compelled to review it because his novel burrowed itself into my soul in a way that no other book has since reading The Boy and the Dog are Sleeping. The Boy and the Dog are Sleeping is a better book because it is a memoir, a real story about love spilling out over life like a rain- swollen stream that has crested far above its banks spreads out over the land. The Fruit of Stone is fiction, so it's not as amazing. But it has that same spirit of hope rising out of miserable circumstances. And the hope, in its quiet, yet muscular way is convincing
Other reviewers have given the outlines of the plot, but even if they hadn't, I wouldn't. The plot, though engaging, is not the heart of the story. It's simply the skeleton to support the muscle and sinew of a story about what it means to love. To love family, to love romantically, to love in friendship, and to love in empathy, despite severe shortcomings, stretched circumstances, and broken people. McEban, the central character who tells his story, portrays love in all its guises and in a way that lets you see that love is about giving more than getting, though getting comes from the giving.
This is not an easy read. People hurt and are hurt, injure and are injured. Sometimes gravely sometimes not so gravely. Sometimes they have it coming. Sometimes not. Many times life gets away from them. But then it comes back because they let it... or they decide they'd rather not. In the end, McEban comes through in a way you knew he would. But it feels surreal and right, a resting place after a long journey, not the syrupy end that it could be.
The Chicago Tribune writer whose quote is on the front of the book nailed it, writing, "Achingly beautiful."
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