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Desert Solitaire (平装)
by Edward Abbey
| Category:
Desert, Nature |
| Market price: ¥ 108.00
MSL price:
¥ 98.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Desret Solitaire is a potrait of Southeastern Utah described in a most uniquely poetic way. Abbey describes people, places stories in a fashion that colors your mind and creates vision to the words and text. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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Steve Alpert (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
This is a collection of romance stories. Romance between a man and the land. Edward Abbey writes lovingly about the stark beauty of Arches National Park - a hard edged place of immense and awe inspiring beauty.
Weaving impressions of a summer spent as a park ranger living in a trailer with minimal comforts, Mr. Abbey exhibits his virtuosity in taking us out where the stars touch the desert. The place has a completely unique personality of its own and Abbery describes it lovingly and raw.
After World War II Moab, Utah became a boomtown for uranium mining. The wide disparity between nature's splendor and man's desire to build weapons of destruction set the stage for one unforgettable chapter, "Rocks" that I've read at least a half a dozen times.
After reading Desert Solitaire you'll want to go this magnificent part of Utah. If you've been to that part of the country and want to go back, read it. The sweep of the country and Abbey's wry wit is a thoroughly satisfying reading experience. |
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Bill Weaver (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
Desert Solitaire is definently worth reading. Edward Abbey is humorous and informative. His writing is very thoughtful and his plan to get rid of cars and roads in national parks (which has not been very successful) is a great idea. Too many people don't get away from the business of every day life and spend time alone with their thoughts. The book can be dry at times when he writes about twenty different kinds of flowers and their scientific names, but he is a great story-teller when he tells of his adventures. |
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J. Bliss (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
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. This book is the best account of real life in a fabulous place. It takes you back to those National Park visits when life was simple and people didn't mind getting out of their car and walking. Today everyone thinks they can "experience" a park from their car, Abbey understood this was coming and didn't mind giving his idea's on the subject. The descriptions of wildlife, flora and fauna are fantastic. You can almost smell the wild flowers. If you really want to experience the canyonlands of Utah, read this book! |
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Shaun Lee (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
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 else. Abbey takes his season in the desert with less seriousness than most environmentalists can at the grocery store. Abbey's philosophy reflects a time when one did not have to worry about the chemicals or the genetics or the people behind his meal, and reading his book, I cannot help but feel an extreme jealousy.
Abbey's philosophy is far from extreme, making this book perfect for a wide range of people. Once in the book he kills a rabbit for the sake of a personal "experiment," he makes a case for people to carry firearms, and he eats meat and a lot of eggs. Today, any of those actions would make a progressive seem contradictory in their philosophy. When did things get so serious? Abbey has written a great book for the cause of conservative environmentalism. Conservative not in the way of the political spectrum, but rather in the way of taking things slower: He says the rise in industrial tourism will destroy the wilderness, that the automobile, while opening up nature to many more people, has cheapened its effect, and that spending a week in one spot in nature is better and spending a week in a thousand different places. The book is beautiful, and regardless of what one believes outside of the realm of environmentalism, readers will enjoy this book with the lack of seriousness that I think Abbey intended time in the wilderness should be spent. |
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Ollokot (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
This is one of only four or five books that I can say truly impacted my life. Many years ago my boss saw me reading "The Monkey Wrench Gang" (which did not significantly impress me). He suggested "Desert Solitaire" as a much better example of Edward Abbey's work. I took his recommendation seriously, and have been thankful to him ever since.
Having grown up in Idaho I had done a fair amount of backpacking in the mountains and forests, and I was somewhat of an outdoor enthusiast at the time. But the thought of recreating in the desert never held much allure to me--until I read this book. Now I make at least a couple of backpacking/camping trips per year into the desert. I still love the mountains, lakes, rivers, and forests, but I now know that the deserts are also full of wonder.
My favorite chapter told about Abbey's trip to Havasu Creek and Falls. While reading about it I remember saying to myself, "There can't possibly really be a place like this". I determined that I would find out if such a place actually existed and if it was as wonderful as Abbey described it. A few years ago I made the trip to Havasu Falls, and I found that the author's description of the place was perfect.
Not only did this book help me to appreciate the desert for what it is, it taught me to appreciate non-fiction writing in general and nature writing in particular--things I thought I did not care for previously. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an appreciation for the outdoors. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
Edward Abbey tells of his adventures as a ranger in the Arches National Park with humor, eloquence and a passion for the vanishing wilderness unmatched by any contemporary author in my experience. You'll laugh at his adventures and misadventures all the way through the book - and then be left with a lingering sadness that the area he describes with such affection is already changed. Buy it or borrow it, but read it if wish to touch a unique part of our wilderness heritage. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
This book succeeds in taking me away from the everyday stresses of life and helping me appreciate the West's natural beauty, as well as its inherent danger. It offers a compelling story, interesting history of our country's struggles between preservation and population expansion, and thrilling prose contrasting the peacefulness and dangerous natural wonders of the West. I may actually have to read it again! |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
I first read this book while spending a solitary winter in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. I cannot imagine a better companion. Abbey had a spiritual connection to landscape that is both intoxicating and addictive, and his plainspoken narrative connects the reader to the depth of his desert experience in an uncommon way. But perhaps the most moving aspect of Desert Solitaire (indeed, all of Abbey's writing) is that the reader, by associating himself with the book, is called to action. This is not a book, nor is this an author, for the passive observer. Someone who wants a nice tale of living in the desert ought to look elsewhere. For anyone who's restless and ready to confront his or her spirit in a purposeful way, inspiration awaits! |
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Tom Regnier (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
Edward Abbey introduced me to the desert via this book. I was never aware of the inherent beauty of emptiness, the fullness of the barren landscape, and the passion that can be aroused by areas others reject as hostile and useless. For me, this book was pivotal in that it made me seek other books by Abbey as well as Stegner, Bass, Zwinger, McPhee, Dillard, and others whose senses and intellect are focused on God's creation. When I heard of Abbey's death almost a decade ago, I realized that a light had gone out - but on reflection, I realize he turned on many other lights before he left. |
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Martin Dworak (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-28 00:00>
Are you one of those city-people? Working all day in buildings surrounded by steel and stone? Read this book and you wish to be in that wilderness. With poetic words Abbey makes you dream of deep canyons, hot deserts, powerful rivers and high mountains. Feel the heat, thirst and happiness. This book contains the personal and critical view and the experience of an outdoor man in an industrial world. It tells stories about dangerous adventures full of action an humor. If you have ever been in the canyon country this book is a must. |
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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