Fool for Love & the Sad Lament of Pecos Bill

by Sam Shepard

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Book cover for Fool for Love & the Sad Lament of Pecos Bill

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In Fool For Love, situated at a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert, transient lovers May and Eddie spin around in a room in a relentless struggle for power and truth. Through recollections and dreams, multiple versions of a fierce and fatal love story are told.

The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His Wife, another kind of love story in the form of a comic operetta, takes a distaff view of the Southwest's legendary cowpuncher and his mate Slue-foot Sue, with irreverent commentary on American heroes and heroics.

"No one knows better than Sam Shepard that the true American West is gone forever, but there may be no writer alive more gifted at reinventing it out of pure literary air." -Frank Rich, The New York Times

"Mr. Shepard is the most deeply serious humorist of the American theater, and a poet with no use whatever for the 'poetic.' He brings fresh news of love, here and now, in all its potency and deviousness and foolishness, and of many other matters as well." -Edith Oliver, The New Yorker

Sam Shepard (1943) is a playwright, actor, author, screen writer, and director whose work is performed on and off Broadway and in other theaters across the country. In 1979, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Buried Child. In 1983, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in The Right Stuff. His other famous works include True West, A Lie of the Mind, and Curse of the Starving Class.


  • ISBN13 9780872861503
  • Publish Date 17 February 1983
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint City Lights Books
  • Format Paperback (US Trade)
  • Pages 150
  • Language English