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Rating: 
Summary: The real West, what it was, what it is
Review: Editor William Kittredge has done a remarkable job of bringing together this great collection of Western writers representing a vast swath of American terrain, covering prairie, mountains, desert, and Pacific Rim. At 600 pages, his book is an introduction to over 70 writers from the journals of Lewis and Clark and the collectors of Native American chants and tales to the writers of late 20th century fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.Some are well known and easily associated with the West: Wallace Stegner, A. B. Guthrie, Louise Erdrich, John Steinbeck, Edward Abbey, Maxine Hong Kingston, Raymond Carver, Larry McMurtry, Ken Kesey. Many are lesser known and deserving of a wider audience, such as James Galvin, Sherman Alexie, and Linda Hogan. As someone less familiar with the poetry inspired by the region, I appreciated selections from a wide range of poets, including the influential Montana poet Richard Hugo. Describing the experience of reading this book is like trying to sum up a year traveling in another country. There are several familiar works: Wallace Stegner's great story "Carrion Spring," set on the northern plains during the spring thaw after a horrific winter kill; the opening of Ivan Doig's wonderful Montana memoir "This House of Sky"; Terry Tempest Williams' chilling essay on the rising incidence of breast cancer in her family after above-ground nuclear testing in 1950s Nevada; childhood memories of homesteading in the Nebraska Panhandle, from Mari Sandoz' book about her father, "Old Jules"; a discourse on water from Gretel Ehrlich's essays about ranching in Wyoming, "The Silence of Open Spaces." There's also Edward Abbey's account of summer work as a park ranger in Utah's Arches National Monument from "Desert Solitaire"; a poignant memory of fishing in Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It"; a brief scene featuring the joyous prankster McMurphy, later immortalized by Jack Nicholson, from Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; a section about a man who stakes a claim on the Wyoming-Colorado border from James Galvin's brilliantly written memoir-novel, "The Meadow"; the evocation of a ghost town and the Nebraska prairie in the opening pages of Wright Morris' novel "Ceremony in Lone Tree"; and one of the many humorous recollections of frontier cowboy Teddy Blue Abbott, as he remembers his friendship with Calamity Jane. And there are wonderful discoveries. I liked Rick Marinis' short story "Paraiso: An Elegy" about two couples from El Paso on a car trip; Richard Nelson's account of deer hunting in Alaska from "The Island Within"; Raymond Carver's memories of his alcoholic father in "My Father's Life"; Larry McMurtry's demythologizing memories of his cowboy-rancher uncles in "Take My Saddle From the Wall: A Valediction"; Mary Clearman Blew's harrowing memoir of marriage to a wildcat oilman with a terminal pulmonary illness, from "All But the Waltz"; David Long's story of a ranch family's disintegration, "Lightning"; and John Haines' description of nightfall in a remote Alaska cabin in "The Stars, The Snow, The Fire." Among the poets, I found the Hawaiian/LA voice of Garrett Hongo, the dark vision of Robert Wrigley, and the thoughtful ruminations of Montana poet Greg Pape. Altogether there are voices of all kinds between the covers of this book. You get a sense of great diversity bound together by a vast landscape. There are a few themes that run through most of these selections, which are also common to literature about the West: freedom, loss, and isolation. The expansiveness of the West has traditionally permitted a kind of liberation from what is restrictive and claustrophobic in the settled East. The flip side of that freedom, of course, is the isolation that comes with living lives beyond the reach of other people. Meanwhile, expansion into the West has meant the loss of what was pristine and unexploited; it's meant the loss of Native American cultures; and as the West evolves, it has meant the loss of the frontier itself. Even as we have discovered the West, it is disappearing. Kittredge's book has captured all that, as well as one can in 600 pages. I heartily recommend his book to anyone interested in the real West, what it was and what it is. As the editor of this anthology, Kittredge has graciously not included anything from his own pen; so I'll recommend his well-written memoir of growing up on a ranch in Oregon, "Hole in the Sky." Two other collections of Western writing I can recommend are "Northern Lights: A Selection of New Writing from the American West," edited by Deborah Clow (currently out of print) and "The Big Sky Reader," edited by Alan Jones (also currently out of print).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Coverage
Review: I am typically not a reader of anthologies. However, I am glad I picked up this one.
From the opening section on "Ancient Stories" to the final chapter on "Brilliant Possibilities" I found myself constantly bending back page corners to return to particular passages and authors.
In his introduction, William Kittredge wrote, "We name ourselves and our futures through narrative. These stories rest on the West in layers, and reach out and out." Not only do they "rest on the West" but they shake the West alive. Shine lights into dark corners. Through this anthology, the Western stage becomes visable and one can see the true characters milling about. The mythological characters (gun toting individualists/weak women) aren't represented.
This anthology clearly forms a basis for putting "Westerns" in the fantasy section and Western Literature next to its Southern conterpart.
Rating:
Summary: A unique view of a literary genre of America!
Review: I highly recommend this book. I don't read anthologies usually, but a class that I am taking this semester, "The Western As America," required it. I sighed and picked it up with reservations. I have been won over by the variety and depth with which this anthology brings together. From a Navajo night chant, journalistic reportage by Stienback, "Legends, Heroes, Myth-Figures and other American Liars" by Thomas McGrath, and Alexie Sherman's "My heros have never been cowboys," (just a small example of the range in this book) the anthology questions our conceptions of literature and the essence of America. I couldn't bear to sell this book to anyone and I hope that you will give it a chance.
Rating:
Summary: A unique view of a literary genre of America!
Review: I highly recommend this book. I don't read anthologies usually, but a class that I am taking this semester, "The Western As America," required it. I sighed and picked it up with reservations. I have been won over by the variety and depth with which this anthology brings together. From a Navajo night chant, journalistic reportage by Stienback, "Legends, Heroes, Myth-Figures and other American Liars" by Thomas McGrath, and Alexie Sherman's "My heros have never been cowboys," (just a small example of the range in this book) the anthology questions our conceptions of literature and the essence of America. I couldn't bear to sell this book to anyone and I hope that you will give it a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, William Kittredge
Review: I'm only 66 pages into it, but I love this book. I would never have known some of these writers. My favorites so far are the Navajo night chant "House Made Of The Dawn" and the writings of Linda Hogan, John Graves and Louise Erdrich. Thank you for editing this book. What a pleasure to read such high-quality writing. Such a sense of the American West. Such voices. I like the John Graves story about the old buffalo almost as much as I like the writings of Cormac McCarthy. If anyone ever doubted it, this book shows that there is great literature from the West. I will use this as a guide to further reading. I can't wait to read more.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, William Kittredge
Review: I'm only 66 pages into it, but I love this book. I would never have known some of these writers. My favorites so far are the Navajo night chant "House Made Of The Dawn" and the writings of Linda Hogan, John Graves and Louise Erdrich. Thank you for editing this book. What a pleasure to read such high-quality writing. Such a sense of the American West. Such voices. I like the John Graves story about the old buffalo almost as much as I like the writings of Cormac McCarthy. If anyone ever doubted it, this book shows that there is great literature from the West. I will use this as a guide to further reading. I can't wait to read more.
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