Rating: 
Summary: One reason no one likes JP Hill
Review: Raban's such a good writer, I suppose I'd like any book he wrote (I'm going to find out shortly by getting hold of another). And that is the only reason I liked this book since the subject matter -- settlement of the Northern Plains around 1911 - 1920 -- does not, in itself, compel me. But then again, I didn't know much about it, and Raban very nicely introduced us. So many interesting things . . . how the drawing of the North Dakota / Montana state line around the 104th meridian split these otherwise similarly-sited people and diluted their political power; how the initial "wet years" of 1911 - 1914 gave such false hope, leading to such disillusionment, and eventually further emmigration west, as the "dry years" ensued and blew away their topsoil with their dreams; how they didn't wander into the area, but rather, were seduced into it by the railroads' (read JP Hill's) misrepresentation of the climate and land, the ease of "firming up" one's rather large homestead claim (hundreds of acres for a song), and the new "scientific" method of "dry farming" which promised to re-create the arcadia these settlers remembered from Europe. And I never thought much about hard it would be to build miles of barbed-wire-and-wood-post fences in a land without trees.Raban argues that this suckering of the little people by the railroads/federal government accounts for the fierce anti-federalism of the seemingly-many up in that area today; that the memory has passed through the generations. So many other memories and ways of life have perservered there on the ranches and such, he may be right. As to Paul Theroux, Raban says they have been friends for "decades." Raban's writing here is similar to Theroux's in the ironic and honest observations that help propel the narrative. But Raban never says anything like, "I felt like throwing the little old lady off the train."
Rating:
Summary: Masterful
Review: This was the first of Raban's books that I had read and I was captivated. Being an avid reader (2-3 books in a good week) I was struck by Raban's command of the language - although their styles are completely different, this is the first writer that I have come across with a command of the language on a par with that of Evelyn Waugh. I read Bad Land four or five times and purchased several copies for various friends. As a professional photographer I was so inspired that I drove from Montreal to Montana and spent three weeks photographing the very things and places that Raban describes. Unlike some of the reviewers from Montana, I failed to find his descriptions of the locals derogatory and found all the people that I met out in Montana to be wonderfully warm and welcoming. The owner of one of the motels that I stayed in even offered me his pistol with rat-shot in case I came across any mischievous rattlesnakes during my trips out on the plains. I met up with a rancher and his wife and they were kind enough to show me around their ranch. They took me to an old, crumbling building from the 1890s and also to some sandstone rocks where the graffiti of cattle handlers from 1898 was still clearly visible etched in the stone. There were deserted and semi-deserted towns all over the place and it was all truly fascinating. What a wonderful part of the country - a spartan beauty.
Anyway, I can't praise this book enough - It might even be the most enjoyable book that I've read in the past ten years.
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