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Higher Elevations: Stories from the West ed. by Alexander Blackburn, C. Kenneth Pellow

1996; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/wal.1996.0023

1948-7142

Lorraine Engstrom,

American Literature and Culture

Reviews 91 Matthiessen stalks blue sheep in the Himalaya and meditates in a Tibetan monastery; in an essay added to the expanded edition, Richard Nelson walks the path of the deer hunter in Alaska, reflecting on the wisdom of his native teachers. The final section, “Testimony,” includes four additional new authors, including Trimble himself, all of whom are western writers. Terry Tempest Williams’s writing suggested the theme for Trimble: Writing about the deaths ofher mother and grandmothers in the context ofloss and renewal in nature, she brings an emotional layer not previously incorporated into nature writing. Other writers in this section also explore intimate personal landscapes: Hasselstrom writes of how northern lights and sunflowers helped heal the pain of her husband’s death; Trimble and Pyle tell how childhood experiences with maps and butterflies turned them into naturalists. Trimble’s selections beautifully demonstrate the range, power, and narrative rich­ ness of contemporary nature writing. They capture each author’s style, voice, and view of the world. As complete pieces that stand on their own, they lend themselves well to literary study as well as reading pleasure. The introductory profiles include biographical information and lively quotations from the interviews, which provide a valuable context for understanding each author’swriting. The introduction, central to Trimble’s conception, in itself makes the book worth­ while. Here, the writers speak for themselves about the craft and vision of their work. They tell of their engagement with landscape, what Lopez calls being “tutored by the land.”They speak about the challenge and process ofwriting:John McPhee’sfavorite way ofovercoming writer’s block, and Gary Nabhan’s use of“method acting”to get inside the spirit ofwild chilis. And they reflect on their reasons forwriting and their commitment to something beyond the self, what Abbey describes as a “moral obligation to be the conscience of their society.”Graduate students in my classes have found here a wealth of ideas about the inspiration and craft of nature writing, aswell as challenging philosophi­ cal and spiritual questions about the place of humans in the natural world. These authors have been the conscience, artistic voices, and spiritual guides for the recent renewal of environmental awareness. Here, we see not only the best of their writing, but the soul of their work. In addition to its obviousvalue for writers, as well as for teachers and students of nature writing, Wordsfrom the Land should appeal to anyone interested in current environmental thought. FRED TAYLOR Antioch NewEngland Graduate School Higher Elevations: Storiesfrom the West. Edited by Alexander Blackburn and C. Kenneth Pellow. (Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1993. 271 pages, $9.00.) At its best, HigherElevations illustrates the range and diversity of western American writing and confounds the cinematic cliché of the Westas a dusty place where good guys wear white. In myfavorite story, “Etta’sPond,”Clay Reynolds’s hero, Walker P., confronts “Progress”—the abstract villain of an affecting story: “. . .Just who the hell wants a paved road through my farm anyway?” Leftwich leaned back and tented his fingers. ‘You know as well as I do about the new development out at Pumpkin Center.” 92 WesternAmerican Literature “Punkin Center,” Walker P. corrected. “Never was no pumpkins there. Named for folks named Punkin. My daddy knew them.”Goddamn city people, he thought. Come out here, mess up everything. Ran half the town now, maybe all of it. Sure as hell ran the county. “Etta’s Pond”feels like a western story not only because of its setting, but because its characters experience loss, isolation, and survival— basic themes in western literature. But at times, the editors ignore the idea that western literature has any thematic connection with the geographic western United States. In some of the selections, Stories from the Westmeans physicallywritten or merelypublished in the West, regardless oftheme, character, or landscape. To be fair, HigherElevations includes several stories with traditional western settings and themes: rodeo as a metaphor for mastering one’s destiny; cowboys as paradigms of camaraderie, loyalty, and kinship; the elements of nature as characters; magical realism, supernaturalism, and UFOs as explanation. The style and tone of the stories vary as much as the content and, consequently...