Art in America

Art in America by Ron McLarty

This is a great listen- read by the author. A middle-aged unpublished writer from NYC heads for a tiny Colorado town to write a play to celebrate the town's history. The cast of characters he meets includes a bald headed woman artist, a 90 year-old pistol-packing rancher embroiled in a land dispute with a pompous rafting entrepreneur, yuppie idealists, local cowboys, a retired Boston detective acting as sheriff (with his dead partner along), and various other townsfolk.

As the play progresses and history gets written and rewritten (depending on who's telling it), the court fight over property rights heats up and a potentially violent woman plots the town's destruction at the time of the play.

This is laugh out loud funny at times, but also thoughtful and warm. The language might offend some, but it's honest and true.