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Summary: The most compelling book on the Red Rock Desert ever
Review: I originally read the book in the early 1980's and continually reread it to refresh my memories of the most compelling, stark, unforgiving, beautiful, lonely, introspective, sensative, sensational and sensual landscape in the world. The author and his book are monuments, and unfortunately perhaps lone sentinels, to the passion that the red rock desert of the American Southwest inspires in the people who love it.
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Summary: This Book is a GEM!
Review: Edward Abbey IS the voice crying in and for the wilderness.
This book makes my whole being ache with emotion. For the wilderness that is being tamed without consent. For the people who saw it. For those who could have seen it. For those who shouldn't have seen it. And most of all for those who will never see it. What am I saying, NOBODY should just see it. They must BE it to understand it. If you've never read the book I sound like a fool. Read it. LIVE it. Ed Abbey is the only one to have even approached the indescribable beauty that is the Canyonlands country.My favorite quote which is a key to understanding this book:
"A man on foot...will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles."
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Summary: One of my top ten favorites
Review: For anyone who has enjoyed or hopes to enjoy the desert it is a must read. Before and after your visits to the desert. Everytime I read it I want to go back to the desert.
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Summary: A celebration of beauty, a discourse against ignorance
Review: In Desert Solitaire, Abbey puts to words my feelings every time I've visited the desert- "the ideal place, the right place, the one true home." He captures the beauty, but also the grit, the isolation and sparseness, the simplicity-- and the wonder. At moments, Abbey's novel is an expression of humility in the face of perfection, at others, an all-out rage against the raping of these lands for purposes of economic gain and tourism for the masses. If you're looking for a pretty travelogue, don't bother. If you truly love the Desert Southwest, or any of our last remaining fragments of true wilderness, and hurt every time you see the land treated with ignorance and disrespect, you'll love this book. We need more voices like Abbey's.
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Summary: Full of Hatred
Review: Sorry, but I didn't care much for this one. I could not detect that the author had much love for the desert, just a lot of hatred for humankind. Let the reader be prepared for that, and not expect a pretty documentary about the desert.
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Summary: This book is wild, wonderful, blatantly honest and necessary
Review: If I were stranded on a deserted island and could have one book with me, I would choose this one. It angers me, saddens me, offends me, and elates me. But most of all it inspires me. Each time I read it I uncover something precious and unique. It never grows old. If you truly love all that is convenient and commercialized, if you revel in the gifts technology brings you, don't read it. It's too good for you. If you truly love and are capable of appreciating the serene beauty of the wilderness buy it, read it, then cry. For it's all gone. When you read, read beneath the text. Read deeply into the subtext of this book. It's all about surfaces. Abbey proves that we cannot truly see, experience or appreciate anything unless we can look below the surface as he did.
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Summary: A cookbook for outdoor meals...Abbey style.
Review: Dare to be a rebel, try these Abbey recipes for yourself in the Southern Utah Wilderness.
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Summary: A spectacular representation of Southern Utah....
Review: Reading Desert Solitare was like revisiting The Desert of Southern Utah. The commentary brought back vivid images of Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point, and the entrire Canyonlands Region. This book is a must read for anyone planning a trip to Southern Utah, or any student of the Physical Science
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Summary: an excellent narrative that everyone should read.
Review: Edward Abbey tells of his adventures as a ranger in the Arches National Park with humor, eloquence and a passion for the vanishing wilderness unmatched by any contemporary author in my experience. You'll laugh at his adventures and misadventures all the way through the book - and then be left with a lingering sadness that the area he describes with such affection is already changed.
Buy it or borrow it, but read it if wish to touch a unique part of our wilderness heritage.
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Summary: Non-fiction has never been so passionate or poetic.
Review: Desert Solitaire is one of Ed Abbey's best known books and exemplifies his unique talent for turning the medium of the essay into something both highly artistic and down to earth. Though apparently proud of his rough exterior and offensive, controversial opinions, Abbey demonstrates in his non-fiction the heart of a poet. This book is worth reading for the amazing sentences alone. If you know the West, this book will bring it home to you. If you do not, it will infuse some fierce love into your soul that, I believe, will eventually draw you to it
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