Desert Solitaire
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Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey
Biography & Memoir
James Mustich
Jul 26, 2018
Written in the middle of the 1960s, yet composed largely from journals kept a decade earlier during the author’s summers as a backcountry ranger at the Arches National Monument (“among,” as he puts it, “the hoodoo rocks and voodoo silence of the Utah wilderness”), Desert Solitaire evokes the paradoxical loveliness of the harsh, hostile landscape with awestruck exactitude and visceral intensity. Edward Abbey’s attention to the desert flora and fauna, to the ancient rock formations and the ever-present weather, to the pleasures of both solitude and company, brings a bracing alertness to the episodes he describes in the linked essays that organize his narrative. Despite its canonization as something of a backpacker’s bible, Desert Solitaire is too quirky, cranky, and idiosyncratic to be stereotyped as a nature lover’s handbook. While the spare majesty of its setting provides a stunning inspiration for Abbey’s work, his meditations have as much to say about society, civilization, and culture as they do about nature.
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Tom Beans
Oct 28, 2018
This book is the reason I left the East Coast 25 years ago and never went back.
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Bruce Greeley
Nov 5, 2018
Independent cuss..!
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Kendra Bilderback
Dec 31, 2018
a beautiful book
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James Happ
Feb 4, 2019
As a frequent bushwalker in remote places, I can empathise with his feelings for country. He describes this area well
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Christopher Parker
Mar 6, 2019
Fascinating and emotionally connected working create a wonderful reading experience.
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Jason Ganze
Mar 26, 2019
Got my dog eared paperback from the discard pile at a Baptist book store 30 years ago. I've read it five or six times. Sparked the re-wilding process of my young suburban soul.
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Steve Knier
Mar 26, 2019
Time understanding a landscape that's totally foreign to me.
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John Hoogendoorn
Mar 27, 2019
Superb writing, vivid imagery and some great stories written with a wry humor!
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Dan Pettus
Apr 2, 2019
Just a beautiful book. Read while hiking southern Utah.
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Ronald
Apr 7, 2019
I love Ed Abbey's tales of the earth and nature. he is a wonderful writer and funny. I have read this book at least a handful of times and my copy is tattered and dog-eared like only a few other books in my collection.
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Jeff Russell
Apr 25, 2019
Abbey's thoughtful, anecdotal work on the wilderness and our relationship with it moved me to a whole new understanding of our national parks.
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Kenneth Sizer
May 16, 2019
Stunningly original and engaging.
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sarah
Aug 27, 2019
.
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Jane Huttner
Oct 8, 2019
Heartrending and thought provoking. A very very good book to look at how 2 tribes deal with problems in Africa
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Leslie Maxwell
Oct 17, 2019
Good reminder about the importance of wild places.
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Alita Cooper
Nov 6, 2019
Planning to go to Utah, sounds like a interesting read about an area I can go to.
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Bryan Dawley
Dec 9, 2019
As good a "nature" book as you're likely to come across.
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"1,000 Books To Read Before You Die" is a registered trademark of Workman Publishing, Inc. Based on the book: 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich, Jr. (Workman Publishing Co., Inc.: © 2018)