New Literary Portraits of the American West: Contemporary Nevada Fiction by David Rio (review)

Although many fine studies of western American literature have appeared in the last ten years, David Rio’s New Literary Portraits of the American West is the first book-length study of Nevada fiction. In this interpretive survey Rio regards contemporary Nevada fiction as both participating in larger trends in new western writing and also possessing some distinctive themes. Nevada fiction reflects broad changes in western writing, such as an inclination to critique the myth of the West in favor of historical accuracy and realism, the depiction of a pluralistic West with a rich tapestry of ethnic diversity, the growing voice of women and representation of female experience, a keen awareness of environmental issues, and explorations of urban experience. Indeed, Rio asserts, the literary West is at last escaping the noose of formula Westerns to mature as a diverse range of literary fiction of the highest order.

New Literary Portraits adopts a three-part structure, covering new western fiction, fictional portraits of Nevada, and trends in contemporary mainstream fiction set in Nevada. In part 1, Rio contrasts formula Westerns with new western fiction, the latter taking a cue from New Western History in its revisionist impulse to reinterpret place, interrogate myths, and turn a realistic rather than romantic eye on the past. In part 2, Rio offers an overview of twentieth-century Nevada fiction up until the 1970s, which, with the major exception of Walter Van Tilburg Clark, recycles stereotypes by playing up mining and gambling, in keeping with Nevada’s national reputation as the “silver state” and the “sin state.” The last forty years have seen a blossoming of serious Nevada fiction, much of it written from a resident’s perspective. In part 3, which comprises 70 percent of the book, Rio analyzes this significant body of work as epitomizing trends in new western fiction, while also exploring unique themes such as Basque immigrants, the Mormon experience, atomic testing and nuclear waste, and Las Vegas.

Rio groups his readings of contemporary Nevada fiction into four subsections: “Reinterpreting the Wild West,” “A Multicultural and Feminized West,” “The Environmental West,” and “The New Western City.” Readers will find Rio’s thoughtful and accessible treatments, if occasionally overlapping, to be an enticing entrée into contemporary Nevada fiction, featuring works by Robert Laxalt, Frank Bergon, Thomas Sanchez, Monique Urza, Phyllis Barber, Willy Vlautin, Claire Vaye Watkins, Tupelo Hassman, Jana Richman, Ann Ronald, H. Lee Barnes, Charles Bock, Laura McBride, and others.

Does it seem ironic that the first full-length study of Nevada fiction is written by a European and published by a Swiss press? In the introduction the author reveals that he is “a non-American, non-westerner, and non-Nevadan” (18). (David Rio is a professor of American literature at the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, where he coordinates a research group, rewest, specializing in the literature of the American West.) I find Rio’s outsider status to be an advantage. Most obviously, Rio does not suffer from the prevailing US prejudice against Nevada. He analyzes authors who have been neglected by US-based critics with the respect that their work merits. Secondly, the author’s distant vantage point allows him to see the forest and not just the trees. His characterizations of emerging patterns in new western and Nevada fiction are helpful guides for general readers and teachers and might have been missed by someone more immersed in the details and daily life of the culture. And finally, Rio is more open to taking up regional topics than most American critics are. These days it is rare to find scholarly studies of the literature of a US state. The present volume’s willingness to define its study as fiction about Nevada—if unfashionable—yields valuable insights. Rio suggests that “present-day Nevada writing exemplifies the power of fiction to reinvent both a state and a region” (249). I...