Fuller, Alexandra. The legend of Colton H. Bryant.

FULLER, Alexandra. The legend of Colton H. Bryant. Read by Ed Sala. 6 cds. 6.25 hrs. Recorded Books. 2008. 978-1-4361-0736-5. $77.75. Vinyl; content, reader notes. SA

Colton Bryant was a third generation oil man and cowboy whose main desire in life was to grow up like his father Bill, doing the things he and his friends felt were important--hunting, fishing and breaking horses. School and Colton never had the same goals, but he realized eventually that it was important to have his diploma even if he did plan on spending his life on the oil rigs. He accepted that he would always be considered a part-time and thoroughly expendable employee, as his father had been. When Colton first started working on the oil rigs, he broke his foot and was soon fired, with no compensation. He managed to get another rig job and eventually was killed because of the oil industry's almost total indifference to the safety of its workers. This description of his life and his death at a relatively early age is a vivid portrait of life in Wyoming, of the modern-day cowboys and of the oil industry's greed and almost total lack of concern for its workers. It's hard to imagine anyone but Sala reading this. His twangy cowboy voice is filled with sagebrush and the Wyoming idiom comes naturally to him. Fuller has captured the true, poetically told story. Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL