Legend of Colton H. Bryant » (Bargain)

With Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, her dazzling debut recounting an unconventional childhood in war-ravaged Africa, Alexandra Fuller put a unique spin on the traditional memoir, sharing what is only part of her fascinating life story. Her follow-up, Scribbling the Cat, continues the unique look at her life.

A heartrending story of the human spirit from the author of the bestselling Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

Alexandra Fuller returns with the unforgettable true story of Colton H. Bryant, a soulful boy with a mustang-taming heart who comes of age in the oil fields and open plains of Wyoming. After surviving a sometimes cruel adolescence with his own brand of optimistic goofiness, Colton goes to work on an oil rig-and there the biggest heart in the world can't save him from the new, unkind greed that has possessed his beloved Wyoming during the latest boom.

Colton's story could not be told without telling of the land that grew him, where the great high plains meet the Rocky Mountains to create a vista of lonely beauty. It is here that the existence of one boy is a true story as deeply moving as the life that inspired it.

The Barnes & Noble Review

Each week, printing presses vomit reams upon reams of biographies and memoirs about the rich, the famous, and a dubious combination of the two (hello, Paris Hilton!). Publishers know readers love to immerse themselves in the lives of Those Who Are Not like the Rest of Us. For the space of a few hundred pages, we vicariously lap up the titillating adventures of French chefs, Revolutionary War heroes, golf pros, not-old-enough-to-vote pop singers, and White House press secretaries. But what of the humble, blue-collar American? What modern Boswell will write of the average life in as careful detail as others would of John Adams or Gene Simmons?

Part 1
A Western     3
Colton and the Kmart Cowboys: Evanston, Wyoming     5
Preston and Colton, Hunting     9
Bill's Philosophy of Horse Breaking: Evanston, Wyoming     14
Bill and Colton: Evanston, Wyoming     19
In the Beginning: Wyoming And the West     24
Cattle Drive: Near Evanston     27
Goose Hunting with Jake, Colton, and Cody: Near Evanston     30
Jake: Utah     36
Jake: Evanston, Wyoming     39
Jake and Colton: Evanston, Wyoming     44
Running Free: Near Evanston     48
Bill's Philosophy of Hunting     55
Looking for Cocoa     57
Firewood     61
Cocoa: June     66
Graduation     68
Bull Riding: All Over the West     72
Paradise Road: Upper Green River Valley     77
Drilling on the Rigs: Utah     81
Anatomy of an Oil Patch: Upper Green River Valley     83
Flow Testing: Upper Green River Valley     87
The Astro Lounge: Rock Springs     90
Train Stopping     97
Colton and Chase: Winter     104
Kaylee's Philosophy of Drugs     109
Fireworks: Evanston, Wyoming     112
Driving All Day: Wyoming/Utah/Arizona     117
Patterson-Uti Drilling: Upper Green River Valley     119
Driving All Day and Night: Wyoming/Utah/Arizona     123
Married: Evanston, Wyoming     126
Drilling     129
Thanksgiving: Evanston/Rawlins     131
A Serious Life     137
Marriage and Roughnecking: Evanston, Wyoming     141
The death of Leroy Fried: Upper Green River Valley     143
Dakota Justus Bryant     148
Colton Quits     151
Colton Works in Evanston     154
Minus Thirty-Five     157
Part 2
The Day Before Valentine's Day: Evanston, Wyoming     161
Cumberland Cemetery     165
Valentine's Evening: Jake And Tonya     169
Free Fall     172
Jake Driving All Day     174
Patterson-Uti Drilling     176
Tough Angel     179
Rainbow: Upper Green River Valley     183
A Million-Dollar Personality     187
Evanston Cemetery: Evanston, Wyoming     190
Colt     193
Jake And Colton: Afterwards     195
Author's Note     199
Acknowledgments      201