The Legend of Colton H. Bryant | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexandra Fuller
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 7255
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 1594201838
Dewey Decimal Number: 622.3382092
EAN: 9781594201837
ASIN: 1594201838
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
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Product Description
From the bestselling author of Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight and Scribbling the Cat, the unforgettable true story of a boy who comes of age in the oil-fields and open plains of Wyoming; a heartrending story of the human spirit that lays bare where it is that wisdom truly resides
Colton H. Bryant was one of Wyomings native sons and grown by that high, dry place, he never once wanted to leave it. Wyoming loves me, he said, and it was true. Wyomingroughneck, wild, open, and searingly beautiful loved him, and Colton loved it back. As a child in school, Colton never could force himself to focus on his lessons. Instead, hed plan where hed go fishing later, or hed wonder how many jackrabbits he might find on his favorite hunting patch, or hed dream about the rides he would take on the wild mare he was breaking. At my funeral, youll all feel sorry for making me waste so much time in school, he said to his best friend Jakeand it was true.
Two things got Colton through the boredom of school and the neighborhood K-mart cowboys who bullied him: His best friend Jake and his favorite mantra, a snatch of a saying he heard on TV: Mind over matterwhich meant to him: If you dont mind, it dont matter. Colton and Jake grew up wanting nothing more than the freedom to sleep out under the great Wyoming night sky, to hunt and fish and chase the horizon and to be just like Coltons dad, a strong and gentle man of few words. When it was time for Colton to marry and make money on his own, he took up as a hand on an oil rig. It was dangerous work, but Colton was the third generation in his family to work on the oil patch and he claimed it was in his blood. And anyway, he joked, he always knew hed die young.
Colton did die young, and he died on the rigfalling to his death because the drilling company had neglected to spend two thousand dollars on the mandated safety rails that would have saved his life. His family received no compensation. But they didnt expect tothey knew the companys ways, and after all as Colton would have said: Mind over matter.
In Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller brought us the examined life of a Rhodesian soldier; nowin her inimitable poetic voice and with her pitch-perfect ear for dialogue she brings before us the life of someone much closer to home, as unexpected as he is iconic. The moving, tough, and in many ways quintessentially American story of Colton H. Bryants life could not be told without also telling the story of the land that grew himthe beautiful and somehow tragic Wyoming; the land where there are still such things as cowboys roaming the plains, where its relationships that get you through, and where a just, soulful, passionate man named Colton H. Bryant lived and died.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Legend of Colton H. Bryant July 14, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read a few chapters and quit. I found it uninteresting. It now sits on my shelf.
 Setting a place for Colton July 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recently heard Alexandra speak at the Jackson Hole Writers Conference and she had me at hello. Her passion for finding and telling Colton's story was as essential as breathing, as drinking water. As she worked on the story, spending time away from her family to drive the wide open roads of Wyoming or to spend time on the oil patch, the sacrifice seemed worth it. For as she says, all there is and will ever be is the story teller and the story told. I was most touched by how much she lived the story. When spending hour after hour writing the story, she would occasionally tell her kids, "When you set the table tonight, set a place for Colton." Her compassion and care come across throughout the writing as she carefully weaves together the beauty and tragedy of Colton H. Bryant. She "gave away" the story during reading; and even when I knew the ending, I found the words and scenes and descriptions stacking themselves around me, creating a place of beauty and sorrow and rest. I spent 10 days in Wyoming, paddling, driving, attending a rodeo, falling in love with the vastness of land. Fuller's book gave me a story of people and place to help me come to know this place on an even deeper level.
Outstanding June 5, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Through her investigative reports of the effect of the oil industry on the western way of life, Alexandra Fuller stumbled across a story that grabbed a hold of her heart and pen. A generational oil patch worker didn't say enough about this simple Wyoming boy with a spirit for forgiveness and laughter who had but one wish: to be like his father. Fuller takes on the voice of Wyoming's brutal elements, endearing family and friends, and the soul of its society to present a gut-wrenching story that will haunt you after the final page has fallen flat between the covers. She delivers this story in prose alive with the harsh vastness of the wild Wyoming west and the loyalty of the souls who live it, work it and love it.
I sojourned quickly through "The Legend of Colton H. Bryant," tugged along by a steady, poetic voice that drew me into this poignant story of an American boy who lived a short life as a grown man. This sheds light on big oil and our country's glutton thirst for more--at all cost.
Absolutely Brilliant Writing May 26, 2008
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
One of the best books I've ever read. As a new resident of Wyoming(Jackson Hole), this book introduced me to the real Wyoming, lending a personal feel to the towns and people among the "vast emptiness". My drives through La Barge, Marbleton, Big Piney, Kemmerer and the like, will never be the same, enhanced by the understanding of the people that work and live in these towns. That being said, this is a book for those who have never set foot in Wyoming, for those who have never ventured from big city America. This book writes about the unsung heroes of our country.
The character development and dialogue will have the reader racing through pages while at the same time pausing frequently to postpone the end to some of the best reading since A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was published.
A must read. May 12, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
There is a Talmudic expression "He who destroys a life, destroys a world entire." Alexandra Fuller captured a "world" from beginning to end. By the end of it, and after it...you are set to wondering about every anonymous teenager you see working in a fast food joint - for that was one memory I had of Wyoming - but it might as well be anywhere these days . You wonder about the things they are going through (or will go through) and whether you would be in tears if you knew. The more you think about that, the more likely the answer is yes. Which brings up the second half of the saying, which concerns saving a world by saving a life. If you read this book, you will get to know Kaylee and Bill, Jake and Colton, and you will be the better for it. And you will be forced to wonder if Jake had an anxious premonition about his buddy the night of the accident. You will wonder about the timing of the sun dog and about other things that we don't much talk about. And after a while you wonder if UPL can afford handrails on their rigs or requirements that rigs should always have at least one experienced person around at all times. You wonder about the safety officer whose main concern while Colton lay dying was obtaining a blood test to exonerate the company(!). Lots of things to wonder about. If you don't want to be set to wondering, don't buy this book.
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