Fencing The Sky: Amazon.ca: Books

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First Sentence
SOMEONE LEFT A GATE OPEN and a few of Mike's cows strayed out. Read the first page

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Concordance

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic vision of the passing West, Dec 12 2002

By

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fencing the Sky: A Novel (Hardcover)

James Galvin is a poet, and his vision of the people who inhabit the land where this story takes place is also poetic. Instead of a straightforward narrative from beginning to middle to end, it intermingles scenes from the lives of several characters told in flashbacks and flashforwards, all sequenced along the spine of a single plot line that involves the pursuit of a fugitive who has killed another man.

The location is northern Colorado and parts of Wyoming extending through the Great Divide Basin and northward into the mountains. The main characters are men with ties to the land -- a rancher, a cowboy, a doctor. Each is witness in his own way to the passing of the rural West and its replacement by land developers and the mining and logging industries.

They are also remnants of a code of honor that respects hard work, the individual, the land and its wildlife, and the values of courage, loyalty, and generosity. In particular, Galvin captures the nuances of friendship between these very individual men and the way matters of concern to them are often lightened with ironic and self-deprecating humor. I enjoyed this book and found myself caring very much for the welfare of its fugitive protagonist.

I recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in the modern West. As a companion book, I'd also recommend Frank Clifford's nonfiction book "Backbone of the World: A Portrait of a Vanishing Way of Life Along the Continental Divide," which finds many of the same kinds of people from real life and explores in greater depth many of the land use issues raised by Galvin's book. As of this writing, "Fencing the Sky" seems to be going out of print. I'm hoping that it reappears shortly in paperback and has a new life for new readers in that format.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing!, Nov 1 2002

By

Mrs. Hamilton "Reader" (Midwest USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fencing the Sky: A Novel (Hardcover)

A book I will read several times and. Very well written and a scathing take on the "back to nature" lemmings who want to spread all the woes of overpopulation into the very open spaces they yearn to experience. After reading this book I feel that I have a new author to enjoy and am pleased to see that he has written several.

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5.0 out of 5 stars South of Laramie, May 17 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Fencing the Sky: A Novel (Hardcover)

This the area where I grew up, after reading one of the reviews felt the need to" speak my piece". Don't read this unless you read The Meadow first. This story isn't about land barons it's about the little guy we all know in the new west the ones who hang on to the dream. It has a wonderful crazy twist that we've seen in many of the true life small ranch owners. Enjoy it for the story with all the twists and turns of a Wyoming creek.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Brave Cowboy revisited
A truly lovely read. I'm much reminded of Abby's classic, "The Brave Cowboy" both in tone and in the story itself. What helps is that Mr. Read more

Published on April 22 2001 by Dave Schmidt

5.0 out of 5 stars Brave Cowboy revisited
A truly lovely read. I'm much reminded of Abby's classic, "The Brave Cowboy" both in tone and in the story itself. What helps is that Mr. Read more

Published on April 22 2001 by Dave Schmidt