- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; 1st edition (Jun 17 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743236106
- ISBN-13: 978-0743236102
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.7 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #958,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
As a young suburbanite from Chicago, Tom Groneberg first falls in love with horses and the rural West during a stint as a guide on a Colorado dude ranch. In this affecting memoir, he traces his decade-long attempt to shrub all evidence of his strip-mall roots through a series of cowboy jobs--mending fences, baling hay, and disposing of dead calves while working as a cattle hand. Later, he tries to command nearly 10,000 acres of inhospitable land as a way-over-his-head owner of a cattle ranch in Miles City, a tiny eastern Montana town so cold in winter, Groneberg writes, that "the clear night freezes the stars in place."
In an ever more desperate need to prove himself to "real" cowboys and himself, Groneberg briefly attends rodeo school and insists on entering a bucking bronco competition, clutching on to his three seconds of saddled glory as if it were an Olympic trophy. What saves The Secret Life of Cowboys from cliché--big-town boy learns important life lessons from craggy Marlboro cowboys--is that the more "authentic" his life becomes, the more miserable he is. Eventually, he falls into a depression so deep that he seeks the help of a psychotherapist and anti-depressants.
After a particularly disastrous year, when an alarmingly high percentage of his cows remain "open"--free of calves--he and his ever-patient wife sell the ranch and Groneberg seems destined to a particularly humiliating brand of failure. Fortunately for him, he discovers a different kind of satisfaction leading a semi-nomadic life with more modest expectations and even simpler pleasures, which he captures in his beautifully spare prose. --Keith Moerer
From Publishers Weekly
This book's jacket (of a cowboy and his shopping cart in a supermarket frozen-food aisle) perfectly sets the tone for its offbeat theme: an account of Groneberg's evolution from Chicago suburbs to Montana ranches. Graduating from college with a degree in English and rhetoric, Groneberg, who writes for Big Sky Journal, Out and Sports Afield, shuns a traditional career. He spots an ad in the Utne Reader: "Hard work with horses in a beautiful setting." Following up, Groneberg summers at a Colorado ranch and is hooked. He moves to Montana, "a place where you can stretch your eyeballs," viewing his new life as almost fictional: "I will tell you a story about a hapless English major, a hopeless dreamer who finds a job guiding trail rides in Colorado. He falls in love with the West and a horse and a girl. Later he finds work on a ranch in Montana. He drives an hour each way, labors for ten hours a day and earns $210 a week. He marries the girl. And later still, he becomes part owner and full-time manager of nearly 10,000 acres.... It is the story I tell myself." However, the story this buckaroo tells readers takes a darker turn. Groneberg attends rodeo school, but bronc bruises are minor compared to the trials of running a ranch, which triggers a knotted stomach, depression and psychiatric sessions. "I chased a dream and it kicked me in the teeth." Groneberg succeeds as cowboy and poet, tossing a saddle on his soul and riding into the shadows: "Night is gathering. I can smell the burning stars."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real cowboy gets honest,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Secret Life of Cowboys (Hardcover)
This book is an amazingly honest and forthright autobiography of a man who started life as a midwestern suburbanite and who found his way to the Wild West and learned to ranch in the harsh environment of Eastern Montana. After spending years working as a hand with horses and cattle, and after owning and working his own ranch, Tom Groneberg still does not believe himself to be a true cowboy. But to me, he and his wife, Jen, are true American pioneers. To those of us with the desire but without the guts to make a life in the romantic but difficult world of cowboys, he is a mythical figure. To those of us who want to take the hard road, he is an excellent example. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fan Mail from a Memoir Junkie,
By "rubyriv2" (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Secret Life of Cowboys (Hardcover)
If this book were fictional Tom Groneberg would be a engaging, complicated protaganist. One doesn't know his motivations at all times but as a reader you believe in his journey, pray for his good fortune and embrace his love for the rugged country most of us have yet to experience. I was most taken with Mr. Groenberg's abilty to be very critical of his chosen path and yet still make the reader hopeful that he continues in his cowboy life. If you ever saw a wide open space and wished to be surrounded by it, catch a glimpse in this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A tribute to a simpler life?,
By
This review is from: The Secret Life of Cowboys (Hardcover)
I respect and admire Groneberg's tenacity and will to become part of the West and to write this book. The book takes us through Tom Groneberg's experiences as a horse trail guide, ranch hand, and ranch manager. Gone are the perfectly dirtied cowboy hats that today's country "musicians" wear...Groneberg learns that life in the West is hard, cold, and unforgiving.Groneberg wants so desperately to be a part of this culture, but he never fully explains why. Perhaps this is part of the mystery of this region, the allure. This book reminds me of a modern-day My Antonia in parts--especially his descriptions of the harsh winters he and his wife endure in Montana. What I come away with after reading this memoir is that it's difficult to be a man today--especially when you're a man drawn to a hard life. Ranching is not as simple and pastoral as it seems. Growing up on a farm allowed me to empathize with Groneberg in parts and allowed me to predict outcomes in others. I would encourage those who haven't had much experience with the "cowboy way" to read this memoir and leave the country music videos on mute. Groneberg paints a realistic picture of what the life of a cowboy is like in the modern age.
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