The Curandero
by
Dan Curley
Price
129 pages, $12.95
ISBN
0-933532-76-8
Sharp, ironic, beautifully written stories, a bravura
performance. Curley uses an economy of means to summon up a whole
life, whether he's conjuring an incoherent octogenarian trapped in a
snowdrift ("The Struldbrug), a birdwatcher re-assessing his marriage ("To
Have and to Hold"), or an arrogant criminal lawyer contemptuous of
his disheveled mother who drifts through jobs and boyfriends ("The Rescue").
—Publishers Weekly
This book of stories is at once satisfying and acutely sad.
Daniel Curley died in 1988, a writer of exceptional polish. The stories that make up
The Curandero are certainly among his best.
His final book paints this image: a man alone with himself,
for better or worse, fighting off indifference and his own moral and physical
decay—New
York Times Book Review
Daniel Curley, whose archetypal themes and firm, textured language reverberate
like unforgettable dreams. —American Book
Review
Dan Curley wrote more than 90 short stories before his sudden death in an
automobile accident in December 1988. At that time he had published four short
story collections, three novels, three books and co-authored another. His
many short stories had appeared in such places as Atlantic, Accent, Kenyon
Review, New Letters, Massachusetts Review, Playboy, Chicago, etc. He
had published much poetry, as well as reviews in places like The New Leader
and the Chicago Sun Times, and even a handful of critical essays.
Four of his plays were produced in Urbana, Illinois.
Curley had served on the editorial staff of Accent from 1955 to 1960.
Later he founded and was editor-in-chief of Ascent.
Dan Curley was a Guggenheim Fellow, twice an Associate in the Center for
Advanced Study. His stories were reprinted in Best American Short
Stories and in O. Henry Prize Stories. His short story collection
In the Hands of Our Enemies was a national Council on the Arts
Selection. His story "Legends of Our Fathers" won an Illinois Arts Council
Award. In 1985 his short-story collection Living With Snakes won
the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.
The last book of Curley's before his death was his 1987 novel Mummy.
He co-authored The Perfect London Walk with a former student, Roger
Ebert.
Dan Curley was born in East Bridgewater, Mass. in 1918. A graduate of the
University of Alabama, he taught at the University of Illinois from 1955.
