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Title: There Is No Otherwise

Author: Ardin Lalui

Narrator: Aaron Connor

Format: Unabridged

Length: 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-14

Publisher: Kemah Bay Marketing LLC

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

This is the critically acclaimed and emotionally charged story of JP McGrath, a young cowboy who at 16 finds himself working on the Tobin Ranch east of El Paso. JP has been forced to grow up fast, life has been hard, but his biggest test is yet to come. On a night out drinking with friends, a chain of events is set in motion as violent as it is unstoppable.

Already, JP has been hailed as having entered the ranks of the most interesting, sympathetic and poignant characters to populate the lonesome, literary West. This beautifully designed series of stories, of which this is the first, is fast becoming one of the most anticipated western collections of recent years.

Members Reviews:

Not for nothing, this pleasing short story...

Not for nothing, this pleasing short story ( 44 pages ) reminded me of Jay and the Americans 1964 song 'Come a Little Bit Closer'. All the elements are there, but still the ending is somewhat different. My question to author Ardin Lalui is why did you stop the story on page 44? I was really getting into the content when it ended. Why? It's too bad, because the book seemed like it was ready to ignite. If you are not ready to write a full novel, try a 200 pager like Stephen King's 'The Mist'. Not every author can write a 54 page masterpiece like Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', or the 44 page classic 'Rip Van Winkle'. Your story displays pending talent and I look forward to your first novel. I also found the lack of quotation marks refreshing, while substituting them with dash marks somewhat original.

The story centers around three young men driving a pickup through Texas to the small town of Las Cruces, New Mexico. They all work at the Tobin Ranch as cowhands, but are treated as the sons of the Tobins. They are depressed about Mrs.Tobin's mortal illness and Mr. Tobin's subsequent hard drinking. They are looking for a good time! They pull into town and enter a drab bar named La Luna. On page sixteen, JP, the youngest of the three friends, looks around and says to himself "...it was about the kind of place where nothing good would ever happen to them..." This is where I stop, you will have to read this winsome short story for yourself to find out what happens next.

Mr. Lalui does flash the reader his budding talent, and I would like to see more extensive work from him in the future. Even though he only had 44 pages to work with, it's surprising how much empathy this reviewer had for the characters. There wasn't much time for the author to give the reader a warm feeling about anything, but somehow he succeeded. Kudos to this promising Irish author, who writes westerns!

A short piece about isolation punctured by pleasure and violence

I know Las Cruses, El Paso and the outlying towns pretty well. Even today Las Cruces has the feel portrayed in this story (unless you go up the hill to end of town with the shopping mall and Golden Corral). The story seems to take place in the past, but maybe not, hard to say and that gives it a timeless quality. As the other reviews have pointed out it's a piece about the characters and the setting. The plot centers around a confrontation and it's lack of alternatives to anything but violence.

Different

If you want to read a short piece that doesn't fit into any prescribed format, this is for you. I think I can say I enjoyed it, but I'm not positive.