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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David Ing
May 22, 2020
Abbey opened my eyes to the necessity of wilderness preservation in this work and I will always enjoy the poetry of his words as he described the landscapes he loved. Life changing for me.
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Jamal Abisourour
Aug 14, 2020
I loved this book.
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Lisa Schulz
Aug 26, 2020
I loved reading about Abbey's life in Southern Utah. His solitude, observations and experience were so clearly expressed. It's been a while since I've read it but I think I was mostly appalled by the cavalier loss of a landscape by the building of a dam and subsequent flooding.
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JBN RN
Apr 9, 2021
We were just at Arches last week. I will be reading this book soon!
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Gordan
Oct 21, 2021
This was excellent. Parts of this book are amazing and on par with some of the best books I have read. Thank you 1000 books for making me aware of this great read. Audio book version is narrated very well
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Adri Matamoros
Dec 8, 2021
Good.
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Chuck Munro
Dec 12, 2021
A mournful, beautiful account of the natural American Southwest and the last days of a river canyon before it is dammed to create Lake Mead.
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Carol Ann Weaver
Dec 23, 2021
Really love it. I don't live that far from this paradise. It is on my bucket list to go there!
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Eric Rebarchik
Dec 30, 2021
It reminded me of the times I’ve been to Arches National park, and how magical it feels
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Mark Dempsey
Apr 12, 2022
Beautiful prose.
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Chris Broadbent
Nov 12, 2022
Love his cynicism, quite a different sort of book
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JDBINNY
Dec 30, 2022
Loved it.
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James Charles
Apr 1, 2023
Loved the relationship between man and nature in this book <3 genuinely makes me want to visit Albuquerque one day, although I suppose that's counterintuitive for the aim of the narrator. xD
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William
Aug 19, 2023
Wonderful read
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Beth Lein
Jan 2
Because
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Stefanie Mclellan
Jan 27
Why we should not pave paradise
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Trevor
Jul 5
Well, this was a beautiful book! I love the author's note at the beginning, which gives warning as to Abbey's 'wild ideas' which fly in the face of convention. I don't think he's far off. I can understand the desire to step away from society for a while to appreciate the world for what it is without us around. This book is one part memoir, one part nature book (not guide, though), and one part philosophical tract, and the constant shift between lenses was more entertaining than jarring. Abbey's acerbic tone was also highly entertaining, especially when dealing with tourists. Loved it!
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