This Ol’ Drought Ain’t Broke Us Yet (But We’re All Bent Pretty Bad): Stories of the American West by Jim Garry
1994; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 29; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1994.0018
ISSN1948-7142
Autores Tópico(s)American Environmental and Regional History
Resumo88 WesternAmerican Literature voice here, that ofDee Brown himself: patient, moral, generously compassion ate, itholds these tales in amatrix ofgentle wisdom, allowing the sense oflifein another time to come forward slowly, like the flavor ofafine stew. BOB ROSS IdahoState University This 01’Drought Ain’t Broke Us Yet (But Were All Bent Pretty Bad): Stories of the American West ByJim Garry. (NewYork: Orion Books, 1992. 228 page, $18.00.) Jim Garry is a storyteller based near Sheridan, Wyoming. A raconteur of cowboy culture, he has worked “as a cowboy, naturalist, horse wrangler, media consultant, wilderness guide, teacher, camp cook, political consultant, river-runner, artist-in-residence, lumberjack, biologist, mule packer, . . . and a fewother things.” The tales he’s collected in this new volume in Orion’s “Library of the American West” series mirror this colorful background. Whether explaining whywehaveavice-presidentor howNeverSweat,Wyoming, lostits name, Garry reveals the cultural richness ofeverydaylife in a landscape that is, to untrained observers, “mile after mile ofnothing but mile after mile.”“In rural America,” he says, “the cultures and hence the stories are shaped by the land, so the lessons are the land’s.” Garrytells storiesofdomino playersandTexas rangers, cardealers and bull riders, “three-legged”judges and sheepherders, all organized around loosely thematic categories (technology, weather, crime, Prohibition, ghosts). Though his characters are sometimes larger than life, most are part ofa lovable rogue’s galleryofdry-land realists.There’sJack Davis, for instance,who “worked on the theory that the first snowflake of the year that hit you was God’sfault, but that the second onewasyourownfault.”OrUncle Dud,who,whenTexasfencesfirst served asrural phone lines,used to pull hisbuggyup to afence, clamp onto the top wirewith alligator clipsand then crank onto the partyline—Pecos County’s first mobile phone unit. Notone to letfacts get in the wayoftruth, Garryknows that ifsome stories didn’t happen “they should have.”He also reminds us that “oral literature is always a single generation awayfrom extinction.”“Ifyou enjoyed one of these tales, please somedaytell itto someoneyounger than you,”he saysatthe end of the book, “someone who can, long after you are dead, tell it to someone else. The stories onlylive in the telling.” Garry’snarrative presence isdrollwithoutbeingexcessivelyfolksyand most ofhis stories are didactic without being heavy-handed. “Always remember,”an old ranch hand once told him, “anythingthatyoucan laugh atcan’t hurtyou. It can killyou, but it can’t hurt you.”It’sadvice Garryhas taken to heart. This 01’Drought is clearly aimed at a popular audience, and might, with Reviews 89 luck, draw a fewstrays out ofthe line at the video rental store. The fresh sound ofwestern vernacular comes alive in Garry’sbook. I hope this book finds the readership it deserves. MICHAEL KOWALEWSKI Carleton College Inside Passage: Living rvith Killer Whales, Bald, Eagles, and Kwakiutl Indians. By Michael Modzelewski. (NewYork: HarperPerennial, 1992. 184 pages, $9.00.) During Modzelewski’s first weeks on tiny Swanson Island, tucked into British Columbia’ssouthern coast, a Kwakiutl elder observes the author’sstack of books. “You guys college—all same. Load down with knowledge but no wisdom.”With that, the elder identifies the primary challenge and chiefweak ness of this account of a young man’s self-testing in the saltywilderness of the Pacific Northwest. A writer in search of a subject—“I sense that the wherewill determine the what”—Modzelewski fortuitously encounters Renaissance/mountain man extraordinare Will Malloff, owner of Swanson Island. A casual visit lasts more than ayearwhile Modzelewskilearnsthe skillsofjiggingfor salmon; reading the skies, tides, and currents; and adapting to a land atonce abundant and hazard ous. Bursting with enthusiasm and gee-whiz awe for the natural world, Inside Passagesoarswhen Modzelewski describeswildlife and landscape, but he never quite manages to transcend his college boy “knowledge.”Engaging anecdotes are routinely interrupted by blocks of library research and the awkward injec tion of some important thinker’s famous quote. Furthermore, Modzelewski’s breezy tone, over-edited with annoying precision, seems to run counter to the spirit of the place, the inky silence of impenetrable forests and fog-blanketed fjords. EventuallyModzelewskidoes setthe book-learningaside and opens himself to wisdom from the land. One night he dreams of saving an orca calf, and the pod of whales thanks him by...
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