|
Desert Solitaire | 
| Author: Edward Abbey
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.79
You Save: $6.16 (41%)
New (33) Used (34) from $8.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  120 reviews
Sales Rank: 10923
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0671695886
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780671695880
ASIN: 0671695886
Publication Date: January 15, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, the noted author's most enduring nonfiction work, is an account of Abbey's seasons as a ranger at Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah. Abbey reflects on the nature of the Colorado Plateau desert, on the condition of our remaining wilderness, and on the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world. He also recounts adventures with scorpions and snakes, obstinate tourists and entrenched bureaucrats, and, most powerful of all, with his own mortality. Abbey's account of getting stranded in a rock pool down a side branch of the Grand Canyon is at once hilarious and terrifying.
Product Description
When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah. This is a rare view of a quest to experience nature in its purest form -- the silence, the struggle, the overwhelming beauty. But this is also the gripping, anguished cry of a man of character who challenges the growing exploitation of the wilderness by oil and mining interests, as well as by the tourist industry.Abbey's observations and challenges remain as relevant now as the day he wrote them. Today, Desert Solitaire asks if any of our incalculable natural treasures can be saved before the bulldozers strike again.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 115 more reviews...
 I now understand why this is considered a "Nature Classic". July 31, 2008
I purchased this book because David Quammen referenced it in one of his books, and I really enjoy Quammen's books. It is listed on various websites and in some magazines as a "Nature Classic".
I have visited and hiked the deserts and canyon in Utah and northern Arizona. That allowed me to feel a lot of what Abbey writes about. It is a special place. I wish I could go back and see Arches National Park when Abbey was there. (It was Arches National Monument at the time of his stay there.)
While there are some controversial things in this book, and while I don't agree with everything Abbey writes, I have to say that I really hated to come to the end of this book. Besides the stories about nature, Abbey also writes about some of the human activities in this area.
I think I understand why people call this a landmark book. The environmental movement was just starting in the sixties. (Does anyone else remember the green Ecology symbol?)
Must reading May 4, 2008
An early environmentalist even before the term came into use. Ranks up there with Sand County Almanac and Silent Spring. A must read for those who care about the environment. Abbey predicted some of the water problems that now face the southwest.
Fantastic Book April 26, 2008
This is my favorite book. I consider Abbey to be a hippie environmentalist--a sort of modern day Thoreau. The book will suck you in and you'll be wishing you could run off to Moab and have a beer with Abbey.
 A classic... April 13, 2008
This is "classic Abbey" and his best work. What else can be said? This book should be on everyone's reading list whether you agree with Abbey on everything or not. I loved it. You will especially enjoy it if you have an affinity for deserts, the southwest, or Moab country.
One of the great man in nature books April 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Stumbled onto this in my late teens in the early 80s and never looked back. Abbey's extreme love of nature and his well-defended loathing of what we've done to our natural world add up to a real eye-opener for those, like me at 18, who haven't thought much about how great this place must have been before we got here.
Abbey's love of solitude and comfort in being in the middle of "nowhere" inspired me to seek out remote places and my life has been all the better for it. His irascible attitude towards government also strikes a strong chord, but the main joys here lie in Ed's awe and wonder at the magnificence of the canyons and mesas he happily lives with before the bulldozers and mindless tourists inevitably arrive. The bits about people driving in for a few minutes and then leaving after taking pictures are truly classic; Ed can be one of the most hilariously dry nature writers when the mood is upon him.
I've since read most all of Abbey but still think DS is his masterpiece.
This book should be in EVERY high school English curriculum.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
