Fiction. In AFTER THE GOLD RUSH, Lewis Buzbee captures the American family disrupted by challenges from the outside world and from within in powerful, moving stories. Even when life conspires to tear them apart, Buzbee's families cope; they figure out what comes next. Though not connected in any narrative sense, the stories share a common thread: how to live after the gold rush of falling in love is over and life, with all of its many daily challenges, goes on. The collection includes the novella An American Son, a story filled with pathos and humor about a 17-year-old high school junior who, to the amazement and utter consternation of his parents, defects for a time to the Soviet Union and becomes a writer, eventually returning to the Best Westerns of America.