Je T'aime Cowboy

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan and director of La Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

The stories that make up this collection have appeared in many of
Canada’s leading literary journals. T.F. Rigelhof’s style is direct,
contemporary, and conversational. His words fall on the ear not unlike
those of Damon Runyon, with resonances of earthiness and socially
ambitious circumlocution. Like Runyon, too, the writer often addresses
to the reader questions of how the plot should go.

These stories are peopled with guys who are always trying to figure out
the angles in their small corner of life—and always coming up a little
short of bliss. Some of the plots give the collection the feel of a book
of literary urban legends. Particularly acute are the author’s
observations of clichéd fantasy and real-life relationships in the
cityscape of the transplanted, where characters live with the unease of
not quite belonging.