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Summary: ...
Review: no other author relates the spirit of the southwest like abbey. his undying love and acute perceptions make this book a must read for anyone traveling into the desert. hey even if you aren't going anywhere near sand you should read this just to see what you're missing.
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Summary: Paradise lost
Review: I recently visited Arches National Park. It is a place of beautiful contrasts -- stone eroded into unusual formations, standing red against a bright blue sky. Unfortunately, the park was experiencing difficulties associated with a skyrocketing number of visitors: destruction of trails, traffic congestion, parking shortages.Edward Abbey was a ranger at Arches Park during the 1960s, before a single paved road traversed the park, when it was an entirely different place. "Desert Solitaire" details his season spent in the wilderness, when he grew increasingly familiar with the power, beauty, and intensity of the Utah desert. His writing, much like the landscape, possesses a captivating depth and clarity. Sadly, Abbey foretold that his book would be an elegy to a place that would cease to exist. The Arches Park that he wrote about with such passion has disappeared, replaced by the colassal traffic jam he prophesized. Abbey's book stands as a warning to those who would pave over and develop even more of the natural world. It is already too late for Arches.
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Summary: Prophetic
Review: The anger in Abbey's prose has been justified as every year we see more and more of our wilderness trampled, cut, paved and polluted. Desert Solitaire should be re-read every 3 years to remind us of what we're doing to our open spaces. His voice needs to be kept alive as one of the great spokesmen for the land. This is an excellent primer for anyone interested in preserving our natural heritage.
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Summary: Forget death, forget taxes
Review: Reading this book is, I feel, an unspoken duty of all peoplewith any interest in what allows them to live. Unlike some readers, Iinterpret Abbey's vision of the best lifestyle as a balance between roots (nature) and future (society). He is not a Luddite, nor is he an anarchist. This book offends many due to its strong views (name one person that made a difference about something they were ambivalent over). The key to understanding Desert Solitaire is; (yes here comes the platitude); keeping an open mind. There is no better way to phrase it.
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Summary: Forget death, forget taxes
Review: Reading this book is, I feel, an unspoken duty of all people with any interest in what allows them to live. Unlike some readers, I interpret Abbey's vision of the best lifestyle as a balance between roots (nature) and future (society). He is not a Luddite, nor is he an anarchist. This book offends many due to its strong views (name one person that made a difference about something they were ambivalent over). The key to understanding Desert Solitaire is; (yes here comes the platitude); keeping an open mind. There is no better way to phrase it.
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Summary: Read it and weep
Review: Abbey receives a sympathy vote from me for several reasons: This is one of his first works, and it's also the first one of his that I read. But my review here is based upon re-reading the work almost 20 years later. Edward Abbey is a man at home with himself. One gets the impression reading Desert Solitaire that he is always by himself, even though he was married, and had several children. I've no doubt he was a loner, and the ideal world he portrays is one where Abbey travels the world alone with nature - talking to snakes, chasing wild horses and cows, and observing nature's interplay, far from the meddling influences of humanity. As a ranger in utah, he views the intruding, artificial world of we termite-people with disdain. As a writer, he builds on this and other themes in a matter-of-fact, yet deeply challenging way. This is the style of writing he came to be known so well for in his later works. Environmentalists like to claim Abbey as their spokesman, and Abbey definitely gave the appearance of a nature-lover. But I'm more inclined to think of him as a "human-hater". I think he knew deep-down that humans are nature's spawn, and nature has always been powerless to be pro-active in perserving its various features. Nothing is sacred, including the wonderful architecture of the Colorado Plateau. Abbey was deeply in love with the alone-ness that the area represented to him, and was every bit as deeply angered by the ever-increasing ranks of people intent on despoiling it. If that's an environmentalist, then so be it. But in Desert Solitaire, there is never any pretense that man and desert could ever be compatible. Indeed, if there is any point to be made, it is exactly the opposite. You'll find it tough being the bad guy. Nevertheless, it'll be every bit as hard to put this book down. Read it and weep.
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Summary: Plesantly consumed with inspiration, love and intrest.
Review: Desret Solitaire is a potrait of Southeastern Utah described in a most uniquely poetic way. Abbey describes people, places stories in a fassion that colors your mind and creates vision to the words and text. I believe this book should be required text for anyone who has been or planning to visit any part of the southwest, or any national park for that matter.
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Summary: Who Needs Cars?
Review: I agree totally on everything said.If you're too lazy to get your butt out of a car,you shouldn't be there,when all you're doing is lousing up the wonderful town of Moab.Having been there yestarday[the sixth of April,2000]I am even more sympathetic to his views. What a great place. If you wish to see a bit of the desert paradise Abbey described,get out of your car,or go to a certin place in my beloved state of Utah that I won't tell you the name of.But if you figure it out,I'ts great.May Edward Abbeys belifs trimuph. And when in Moab,try the Slick Rock Cafe.Calamari of the gods. A Bleeding Heart Enviromentalist[Who resides in the crazy planet of Utah,bless it.]
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Summary: A Revelation...
Review: I bought this book about 13 years ago from the sale table at a book store. Reading it was a veritable baptism into a new world. Abbey has the ability to draw you into his world, so that as you read you feel like you are walking right beside him. His writing will endear the natural order to you. What a fascinating mind this man has...I have collected all of his nature essay books. They are all spellbinding.
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Summary: Desert Solitaire was my reason for spending time in Tucson..
Review: ...but once I got here I found that the desert is the real attraction. After spending many, many hours hiking through the desert around Tucson, I realized Abbey's attraction to it, as well as his warnings about it. Great read and an appropriate introduction to the work of Abbey. If you're at all interested in desert life, look no further than Desert Solitaire. Too bad Tucson is such an terrible city to live in. Tucson doesn't deserve its beautiful surroundings.
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