Art in America - 9780670018956

Steven Kearney is a bumbling, overweight man in his late forties who has produced 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 an elderly landowner, Ticky 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 survivor named Mollie Dowie, and with some last-minute directorial assistance from Roarke, produces a play that brilliantly captures the history of the town. In the process, he realizes that he's too old to keep beating up on himself and discovers both love and a new confidence.