Desert Solitaire [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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Sorry, but I didn't care much for this one. I could not detect that the author had much love for the desert, just a lot of hatred for humankind. Let the reader be prepared for that, and not expect a pretty documentary about the desert.

5.0 out of 5 stars A flawed man - but nearly a perfect book, October 1, 2010

This review is from: Desert Solitaire (Paperback)
This is at once a hilarious and disturbing book - hilarious in that Abbey's flippant attitude and "I value nature more than mankind" take on life is refreshing and leads to a lot of awkward encounters; disturbing in that it highlights just how much environmental degradation North America has undergone. If Abbey was railing this angrily decades ago, one can only imagine what he'd say about today's state of affairs.

Many people who've written negative reviews here have taken digs at Abbey's less-than-perfect character and belief system, but let's start with the book itself.

Abbey undeniably has the gift of clarity. The genuine tenderness and reverence with which he evokes a lizard ducking behind a rock or storm clouds dumping a distant flash flood on the mesas rolling through the skies - it's really beautiful and evocative. You're THERE. The book consists of a great many loosely-connected chapters purportedly recounting "a season in the wilderness", when Abbey worked as park ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah. He explains that actually it was a couple of seasons, and various other anecdotes and trivia are thrown in throughout.

Abbey cooks lonely meals, watches the dust and clouds blow by, helps ranchers rack up their stray cows for extra cash, gets lost in the mesas, and generally treats naive and arrogant tourists with a good deal of spite. Along the way, we're treated to his views on our decaying civilization, which he feels is relentlessly smothering the few remaining 'wild' places on the continent - which is essentially undeniable. His greatest qualm seems to be with the 'automobilizing' of the National Park system - adding paved roads throughout many of the parks so that one can simply drive through and 'see it all' from the comfort of one's vehicle. I couldn't agree more with his tirades on this topic, and I think the 'criticisms' of it here are worthless. These places should be explore by the power of one's own two feet - or barring that, by horse or donkey, or even mountain bike; but not by station wagon, for God's sake!!! As Abbey himself so succinctly puts it, the ones who are too young and small to handle it - they'll have their chance soon! And those too old and infirm, well, they already had their chance! One reviewer on here self-righteously declared (to paraphrase): "Well, I would NEVER be so selfish as to deny handicapped people the pleasure of visiting the National Parks by removing the roads!" But this strikes me as absurd viewpoint: to cut roads into so many wonderful places, to pollute them and so drastically upset the ecological balance within, for the insanely small number of actually totally handicapped people who would thus benefit... it is just not a fair deal for nature. Besides, if the billions of dollars spent paving over natural areas and forcing nature not to reclaim these roads by maintaining were, say, dedicated to research on better prostheses, cures for motor-impairment diseases, and improved BCI's (brain-computer interfaces, which promise to eventually allow even paraplegic or 'locked-in' individuals to manipulate various means of robotic conveyance merely using their thoughts), this problem would probably have been solved by now.

Actually, considering how little actually happens in the book, it is a thrilling and addictive read. Abbey's solitary walk in the desert is enthralling, the way he writes it.

Some people have pegged Abbey as a cynical old hypocrite, and in some ways this can't be denied. HE wants to enjoy the spaces, but OTHER people are just 'the masses', they just get in the way of his peace and quiet. He wants to remove all the roads from wilderness areas, but then takes off on the weekend and drives right into just such a place to relax on his time off. Etc. But I feel that if we're honest with ourselves, deep down everyone feels that way about nature, or travel, or what have you. Everyone wants to do these things, but they always find it getting spoiled to a greater or lesser degree by all the 'other people' in the parks, or all the 'tourists' on their foreign adventure - failing to recognize that everyone else, we are those 'other people' and those 'other tourists.' I think everyone is guilty of this.

One final note on the infamous rabbit incident: yes, Abbey senselessly kills a small rabbit, but it is an accident. He is imagining what his situation would be if he were truly trapped and lost in the wilderness with nothing but his bare hands: would he be able to eat, to survive? He picks up a rock and tries to bean a rabbit just to experiment and to his great surprise actually nails it and kills it, though he's not lost or hungry. He walks away feeling a strong 'sense of power' but I don't think this is a reference to his blood lust - it is the sense of power and confidence he gained from realizing that even with no tools or equipment to his name he could potentially survive on his own skills and wits. That's how I interpreted this scene, in any case.

True, Abbey can be a cantankerous old bast*rd, but I gotta say I like his style. I think he is fundamentally correct that the environment must come first, and human needs (and especially human wants and comforts) come in a distant second. After all, if we keep putting ourselves first, where exactly are we going to be living this 'better life' if we wreck our habitat along the way?

Edward Abbey's collection of essays about his work at the then Arches National Monument(which he calls National Moneymint to mock the villains who wish to pave over everything). Abbey does have some good points, like we should stop trying to pave over things to make it more convineat to see nature. The whole Glen Canyon tragedy is told, foreshadowing the novel "Monkey Wrench Gang". I did like his wide knowledge of philosophy and the desert fauna and flora, and I relate to his love of the desert, but his prose is a bit(forgive the pun) too arid, and I had to slog through parts of the book. On the whole, I recommend it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Desert Solitaire
This book is awsome. It is hard to believe that 30 years later some of the same problems exist for the NPS. Abbey definitely was a visionary. Read more

Published on April 15 2004 by J. Bliss

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and entertaining but not much Natual History
You've got to admire a man known as the quintessential evironmentalist who writes so gleefully about trashing nearly everyplace he goes. Read more

Published on Mar 20 2004 by Mark E. Baxter

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspirational Call to Action!
I first read this book while spending a solitary winter in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. I cannot imagine a better companion. Read more

Published on Dec 9 2003 by freeheel

5.0 out of 5 stars Environmentalism from a better time
Today, in order to be a true progressive or environmentalist, one has to always be thinking about how whatever one may be doing, it is invariably negatively affecting something... Read more

Published on Nov 8 2003 by Shaun Lee

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for the faint of heart (or stomach)
I started reading this because it is required reading for a class I am taking. I stopped before I had read the end of the fourth chapter - when the author kills a rabbit! Read more

Published on Oct 15 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Rugged Individualism Personified
This book is the author's memoir of the time he was a park ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah. Read more

Published on Sep 17 2003 by IRA Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Solitaire...Savage...Unforgiving...Beautiful
I have always wanted to visit the desert southwest. Last year, after 33 years I finally got the chance. Read more

Published on Aug 21 2003 by rubbernipplesalesman

3.0 out of 5 stars Torn Between Two Voices
To begin, I loved parts of _Desert Solataire_. Abbey seemed to be warbling between humility, confusion, and utter, unabashed egotism. Read more

Published on July 6 2003 by Daphne

5.0 out of 5 stars A voice crying in the wilderness
Edward Abbey was an outspoken wilderness advocate, and his nonfiction writing falls somewhere between Thoreau and Hunter Thompson. Read more

Published on May 24 2003 by Ronald Scheer

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic
Excellent. A must read for all with a concern for the American West.

Published on May 14 2003

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