Rating: 
Summary: Great book on the Great Plains
Review: A resident of the Plains, I've read this book several times now, enjoying it always. An engaging, soon-to-be-classic regional travelogue in the best tradition of William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways." A collection of some of the better-known (e.g. Crazy Horse, fur trapping and trading) and virtually unknown (e.g. African-American settlement in Kansas and the last man lynched in Kansas) chapters in western history and western present. There are no great overarching themes here (except a nice unifying thought using Crazy Horse), but rather the keen and crisply-written observations you'd like to make yourself if you had Frazier's eye, wit and pen.
Rating: 
Summary: The America that never was and will be again.
Review: Frazier's book portrays the middle of America truly and entertainingly. He basically condenses his wanderings through the plains region of America into several vignettes, historical personages and occurences that convey a sense of this place. Most of what passes for "American" these days comes from the much more populous bi-coastal regions. But there is still a core of small towns, farms and small businesses that exists in our collective memories and Frazier found the real-life remnants of this culture.This book is well-written and entertaining. The small events that Frazier uses to illustrate the great plains region of the US are excellent vignettes that portray a deeper meaning than just the event itself. For example, the author is attending a community get-together in Nicodemus, Kansas where diverse groups of people are enjoying each others company and experiences a joyful epiphany. "This democracy, this land of freedom and equality and the pursuit of happiness -- it could have worked! There is something to it, after all!" I hope everyone has one of those moments occasionally and it is a joy to read Frazier's retelling of his. Frazier does a great job of examining controversial events without throwing in snide sarcasms that seem to pass for commentary these days. Case-in-point is his stories about Crazy Horse and other plains Indians and Custer and the whites who interacted with them. He assigns equal doses of blame and credit to both sides. I loved his pages on Crazy Horse and also the pages about an exuberant Custer who loved the plains region just as deeply as the Indians. The quote Frazier uses "For bringing us the horse we could almost forgive you for bringing us whiskey" sums up the fine edge that Frazier balances on so well. Frazier is at his best condensing various historical sources to develop an entertaining story. Frazier does display despair about the negatives of the Great Plains - the alcoholism of the Indians, the environmental issues of mining and the depletion of the aquifer, and the spectre of nuclear war that hangs over the northern great plains and its missile silos - but I still finished the book feeling both entertained and educated. The nearest book I know of to this was Dayton Duncan's "Out West" and this one is better. In short, this is a solid piece of regional travel writing that is a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: The America that never was and will be again.
Review: Frazier's book portrays the middle of America truly and entertainingly. He basically condenses his wanderings through the plains region of America into several vignettes, historical personages and occurences that convey a sense of this place. Most of what passes for "American" these days comes from the much more populous bi-coastal regions. But there is still a core of small towns, farms and small businesses that exists in our collective memories and Frazier found the real-life remnants of this culture. This book is well-written and entertaining. The small events that Frazier uses to illustrate the great plains region of the US are excellent vignettes that portray a deeper meaning than just the event itself. For example, the author is attending a community get-together in Nicodemus, Kansas where diverse groups of people are enjoying each others company and experiences a joyful epiphany. "This democracy, this land of freedom and equality and the pursuit of happiness -- it could have worked! There is something to it, after all!" I hope everyone has one of those moments occasionally and it is a joy to read Frazier's retelling of his. Frazier does a great job of examining controversial events without throwing in snide sarcasms that seem to pass for commentary these days. Case-in-point is his stories about Crazy Horse and other plains Indians and Custer and the whites who interacted with them. He assigns equal doses of blame and credit to both sides. I loved his pages on Crazy Horse and also the pages about an exuberant Custer who loved the plains region just as deeply as the Indians. The quote Frazier uses "For bringing us the horse we could almost forgive you for bringing us whiskey" sums up the fine edge that Frazier balances on so well. Frazier is at his best condensing various historical sources to develop an entertaining story. Frazier does display despair about the negatives of the Great Plains - the alcoholism of the Indians, the environmental issues of mining and the depletion of the aquifer, and the spectre of nuclear war that hangs over the northern great plains and its missile silos - but I still finished the book feeling both entertained and educated. The nearest book I know of to this was Dayton Duncan's "Out West" and this one is better. In short, this is a solid piece of regional travel writing that is a joy to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Plains gadabout
Review: GREAT PLAINS by Ian Frazier is one of those travel essays that might serve as the source of arcane facts useful as party trivia. A Plains dust storm in May 1934 dropped an estimated 12 million tons of topsoil on Chicago. Brown-colored dust storms originate in Kansas, and red ones in Oklahoma. Among the Indians, two knives, a pair of leggings, a blanket, a gun, a horse, and a tipi might be bartered for a wife. (Hey, I got ripped off! I had to trade four knives, three horses, a squirt gun, and $50-worth of McDonald's coupons.) Roughly 10% of those pilgrims traveling the Oregon Trail to the West died enroute (34,000 of 350,000). The first man Thomas Jefferson (as Secretary of State) sent to explore the West was John Ledyard in 1785 - preceding Lewis and Clark by 18 years. Contrary to nuclear apocalypse films, the 110-ton concrete door topping U.S. missile silos doesn't slide or swing open at weapon launch; it's blown out and away by internal charges. And there's no known photo or drawing of Crazy Horse. The fact that the author gathered material for GREAT PLAINS from several trips makes it all somewhat jumbled. Only the starting and ending points are the same - Montana. Probably the best chapter, because of the author's concluding eloquent tribute to the man, is the one that describes the life and shameful death of the Sioux war chief Crazy Horse. Otherwise, Frazier haphazardly touches on the history, geography, peoples, personages and events of his vast subject in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this book because I learned something about places I'll likely never see. But it isn't, in my mind, great travel writing in the tradition of, say, Eric Newby. Now, perhaps if you just want recipe suggestions for your next back yard potluck ... " ... ants (scooped from anthills in the cool of the morning, washed, crushed to paste, made into soup) ..." "The Arikara retrieved from the Missouri (River) drowned buffalo so putrefied they could be eaten with a spoon." Yum.
Rating:
Summary: On the road
Review: Great Plains is a cross between Kathleen Norris' "Dakota" and William Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways." It's a road book about the high plains -- that semi-arid, often treeless region covering 10 states lying between the Rockies and the Mid-West. Rather than a day-by-day log of a single journey, it is an account of many trips, as its author criss-crosses the terrain, jumping from place to place and from one historical period to another. When you are done, you have a sense of a vast land and a great 200-year swath of history. Fragments of times and places that we may know from movies and text books come together in a sweeping tapestry containing: Indian tribes, buffalo herds, cattle drives, railroads, homesteaders, droughts, blizzards, grasshoppers, long rivers, sand hills, badlands, small pox epidemics, black settlers, missile silos, strip mining, the Dust Bowl, the Ogalala aquifer, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Custer, Bonnie and Clyde, and the experience of driving a van along straight, empty highways in all weather, picking up hitchhikers, sleeping overnight by the road, and stopping to talk to ordinary people living extraordinary lives in a depopulated landscape most travelers know only as "flyover," that featureless land seen from above between East and West Coasts. It's a great enjoyable read that meanders over its subject, sometimes with a sense of wonder, sadness, amusement, and even -- at a fashion show in Nicodemus, Kansas -- unadulterated joy!
Rating:
Summary: On the road
Review: Great Plains is a cross between Kathleen Norris� "Dakota" and William Least Heat Moon�s "Blue Highways." It�s a road book about the high plains -- that semi-arid, often treeless region covering 10 states lying between the Rockies and the Mid-West. Rather than a day-by-day log of a single journey, it is an account of many trips, as its author criss-crosses the terrain, jumping from place to place and from one historical period to another. When you are done, you have a sense of a vast land and a great 200-year swath of history. Fragments of times and places that we may know from movies and text books come together in a sweeping tapestry containing: Indian tribes, buffalo herds, cattle drives, railroads, homesteaders, droughts, blizzards, grasshoppers, long rivers, sand hills, badlands, small pox epidemics, black settlers, missile silos, strip mining, the Dust Bowl, the Ogalala aquifer, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Custer, Bonnie and Clyde, and the experience of driving a van along straight, empty highways in all weather, picking up hitchhikers, sleeping overnight by the road, and stopping to talk to ordinary people living extraordinary lives in a depopulated landscape most travelers know only as "flyover," that featureless land seen from above between East and West Coasts. It�s a great enjoyable read that meanders over its subject, sometimes with a sense of wonder, sadness, amusement, and even -- at a fashion show in Nicodemus, Kansas -- unadulterated joy!
Rating:
Summary: Truly engaging for the armchair Plains historian!
Review: I first read this book in a writing class in college and just recently reread it. If you're at all interested in what really goes on "beyond the plane window" down on the ground in the Great Plains geographical region you will most certainly enjoy this book. What I appreciated most was Frazier's ability to link the often colorful historical past of this region to the modern day present conditions. Pulling us backward and forward in time, Frazier gives us an engaging, humorous, and historically informative review of some of the Great Plains most well remembered events. Fortunately, often Frazier unintentionally shows his biases (always softening them with humor) on certain themes: strip mining, the Herb Clutter "In Cold Blood" murders, the Indian Crazy Horse, the military's placement of ICBMs on the northern plains, and Lawrence Welk. Great Plains is an entertaining and excellent read, especially on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Just read and look down at the ground outside the window! I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Rating:
Summary: Truly engaging for the armchair Plains historian!
Review: I first read this book in a writing class in college and just recently reread it. If you're at all interested in what really goes on "beyond the plane window" down on the ground in the Great Plains geographical region you will most certainly enjoy this book. What I appreciated most was Frazier's ability to link the often colorful historical past of this region to the modern day present conditions. Pulling us backward and forward in time, Frazier gives us an engaging, humorous, and historically informative review of some of the Great Plains most well remembered events. Fortunately, often Frazier unintentionally shows his biases (always softening them with humor) on certain themes: strip mining, the Herb Clutter "In Cold Blood" murders, the Indian Crazy Horse, the military's placement of ICBMs on the northern plains, and Lawrence Welk. Great Plains is an entertaining and excellent read, especially on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Just read and look down at the ground outside the window! I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Rating:
Summary: Nice, but a little thin
Review: I picked up this book because I have been in love with the Great Plains ever since a cross-country drive took me through North Dakota. Ian Frazier's writing is certainly beautiful, full of evocative ellipses, but I was disappointed to see that he focused on the human history of the region, which to me is just sordid and ugly, and not on the natural history which is what I really wanted to know about. The bits about his present-day experiences are too fragmented and could use a little more substance to stick them together. Nice style, pretty good atmosphere, but not enough facts (for me anyway).
Rating:
Summary: Audio Version is a Great Journey
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the audio tape version of this book and wished it were longer. If there was an unabridged version, I would buy it. I kept this in my car tape player for a week or so while doing short errands, and found myself sitting in the car in parking lots listening a little longer when I should have been getting out and getting my errands over with. Frazier is the ultimate dry-humorist with a very humble style, layering facts upon facts, upon observations notebook-style and leaving me chuckling without him ever having "cracked a joke." The tape simultaneously made me want to drive through the Great Plains while also making me feel that if I never do visit the region I have a much better idea of it. I learned about Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, General Custer, contemporary folks, the land, much more. What is particular noteworthy about this tape, is that unlike so many audio books, this one is read by the author himself. While not the sonorous-voiced typical narrator I was expecting, I ultimately found Frazier's voice particularly charming and satisfying, knowing that probably no one else could capture the essence and tone of the work so well. There is compassion in his voice, enthusiasm, wonderment and wry humor. This tape set was fun, humorous, educational, heartfelt, and as open and breezy as the Great Plains. Thank you Ian Frazier!
|
