By Karsten S. Andersen
Nebraska songs turned into literature
Published 2005-01-15
In 1991 Sean Penn turned "Highway Patrolman" into a movie called The Indian Runner. Now the whole Nebraska album will be turned into a book of short stories. The book is called Deliver Me From Nowhere and will be published on Soft Skull Press in March. It's written by young author Tennessee Jones, who was only three years old when the album was released. It simply consists of ten short stories that are not only recycling the titles of the ten songs on Nebraska, the short stories themselves are prose versions of the songs, retelling the stories and expanding the universe of characters such as Ralph from "Johnny 99" and Wanda from "Open All Night". And perhaps surprisingly to some, it's not bad at all. It's entertaining and deeply interesting to read these tales in this format. But rather than trusting us, check out Soft Skull Press' website where you can read an excerpt from one of the stories.