Art In America

I finished reading "Art In America" by Ron McLarty. I read another one of his books "The Memory of Running" and when I saw this one at the library I had to read it.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Middle-aged New York writer Steven Kearney is down on his luck. He has written thousands of pages of novels, plays, and poems--not a single one of which has ever been published. After being thrown out of his Manhattan apartment, Kearney takes shelter with his longtime pal Roarke, an actress and director. One day, out of the blue, he’s offered a position as playwright-in-residence for three months at the Creedemore Historical Society in rural southern Colorado, which wants him to write and direct a historical play about the town. But when he arrives, all hell breaks loose. A dispute between and elderly landowner, Tricky Lettgo, and a young man named Red Fields escalates into a battle that pits local ranchers against a fringe antiproperty group. Town sheriff Petey Meyers, newly transplanted from Boston and still haunted by the death of his police partner there, tries to keep the peace. As the national media descend, the most extreme member of the activist group hatches a diabolical plan that threatens the very safety of the town. Amid all the tumult, Kearney, with the inspiration of a local painter and cancer survisor named Mollie Dowie, and with some last-minute directorial assistance from Roarke, produces a play that brilliantly capture the history of the town.