In The Desert by Barbara Byar (Cowboy Jamboree Press 2026) is a hard-to-define novel. On the one hand, it’s “grit-lit,” or “dirty realism” à la Raymond Carver, say, which is the aesthetic of Cowboy Jamboree Press. And it’s set in a small rural town in the middle of the Mojave Desert.
There’s no trucks at the stop, and only two cars in the lot. Business is slower and slower every day in this small oasis of something in the middle of nothing...
Back outside, the cloud has vanished, and the sun has begun its long descent. The truck stop, diner, and motel all sit on the edge of town, right off the last highway ramp and before the railway tracks. Further on, there’s some empty grain silos, Dakota’s place and eventually, the observatory. After that, nothing but miles and miles and miles of desert with only highway or train to get you through.
On the other hand, there’s touch of speculative fiction, or alternative history, in that there’s a vague “water credit” system on all residents: if you use up your water credits, tough, unless you go to that diner, where one of the main characters, Jessie, works.
On the third (but maybe not the final) hand, In The Desert has a touch of fantasy/horror, or magic realism, with a nod to Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (which is itself a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, referring to that lead character and his descent into madness) when the five main characters—teenagers Raphael and Jessie, Travis and Sarah, and Sarah’s little sister Alice—find themselves at a mysterious carnival. They escape using an equally mysterious phone booth which appears in the desert (and which has to be modeled on the real yet still mysterious Mojave Phone Booth which peaked in popularity 1997-2000 by way of Godfrey Daniels’ Deuce of Clubs Website).
In The Desert mostly follows the young couple, Raphael and Jessie, teenagers growing up in a small desert town. Raphael has ambitions—to go to Hollywood and be an actor. Jessie has ambitions too, to be a musician, but she also has more responsibilities. This is the main conflict of novel. Jessie’s the wiser of the two: she knows Raphael would stay and make a small-town life if she asked him to, if she tells him she loves him. In this excerpt, the short chapter titled “One Moment Over and Over and Over Again,” Byar uses the words in italics to show what Jessie is thinking, versus what she says, as she and Raphael say goodbye:
The train was boarding. Both Jessie and Raphael stood on the platform but only one had luggage.
Stay. Please stay. Jessie sucked back the tears she couldn’t stop from falling. She would die before she voiced her plea.
“I’m going to make something of myself, Jessie. For me. For you. For us. I won’t be back till I do.”
She touched his wet face. “You’re gonna be a big star, baby. I know it sure as sunshine.”
He took her in his arms and held her close as the train whistle blew, and the porter called, “All Aboard.”
Raphael pulled back, held Jessie’s face in both hands, his green eyes turning blue.
“I’ll send for you soon as I make it. I promise. I love you, Jessie.”
Her words came out weepy. “I love you, too.”
Don’t go.
But he went.
Notice for whom Raphael first says he’s leaving. But his ambition is what makes him attractive to Jessie. She doesn’t ask him to stay because he’d be miserable and because if he did, he wouldn’t be the same person. Maybe. And his probable dissatisfaction might in the long run ruin their love, or at least his life. Byar seems to side with Jessie that love is more important, though Jessie doesn’t seem very content for having stayed. And, how could she be. For anyone with any inclination to leave, small-town life inevitably leads to tragedy.
Byar also inserts unusual and unexpected chapters and characters to round out this odd world. But either cursed by the carnival, and/or by wishes each child makes to an also equally mysterious witch-like character, “Aunt’ Dakota,” who lives on the outskirts of town—the teenagers don’t end up content with their lives. Or perhaps that has nothing to do with magic but simply living in a small desert town.
The story is mostly about small-town life in the California desert, with the exception of Raphael, who we follow to Hollywood as he becomes a famous actor—his wish, which is just barely stronger than his love for Jessie, who stays behind to run her family’s motel, and work at the diner. And have a son.
The most unusual aspect of In The Desert—and the most important one—is how Barbara Byar tells it: non-linearly. She starts readers quite-obviously at or near the end of whatever bad thing has happened (Byar wants readers to know something bad is going to happen), backs up about 10 years to the appearance of the carnival, and then backs up even more to the kids as kids, and their wishes, and then bumps ahead 15 years or so, to the return of Raphael back into town, after having achieved fame-which-wasn’t-worth-it to try find Jessie, and their love. Though it might be too late.
Indie presses are where the real literature’s happening (disclosure: I’ve had a couple of stories appear in Cowboy Jamboree themed anthologies.) This is the best-looking book Cowboy Jamboree has put out. The cover design is great, and the interior as well. A book like this would be perfect for indie bookstores and their customers, but inevitably, to quote a tweet by Byar, you’ll have to “buy it at your local Amazon.” Find her on Twitter/X, Substack and her website.