Black Sun

Rating:
Summary: An Edward Abbey Romance
Review: I could not put this book down. All Edward Abbey lovers will be enchanted with this book. Those of you that skip it are missing out on an all time treasure. This book is an excellent way to distract yourself from the World Trade Center disaster.

Rating:
Summary: A trashy worthless book.
Review: I loved The Monkey Wrench Gang. I thought Good News was one of the best science fiction books I've ever read. So I figured that Abbey was a safe bet for modern Westerns and nature preservation book.
Then I read this thing. To call this book a Harlequin romance would be an insult to Harlequin. All the characters in this book are flat and boring. The main character is full of macho bravado, the love interest is a cliche of a "flower child" while the periphery characters would be best left out of the book for the insights that they bring to the fore.
This book is about 150 pages long and two thirds of those pages are descriptions of the wildlife. Contrary to Abbey's intentions, the wildlife in the book is the most boring natural world ever conceived. It reminded me of why I hate camping.
Worse is the romance filled with some of the most obnoxious lines in fiction. When the main character isn't trying a fake Irish brogue he is saying things like &qu! ! ot;well I never spent the night with you before. Drink a bit and it will make everything better"
Read this book only if you are a rabid fan.

Rating:
Summary: A very worthwhile read; beautifully written
Review: In typical Ed Abbey fashion, a beautiful book that explores the depth of Abbey's romantic side. Environmental and isolationist, this book will appeal to the outdoorsy, just-want-to-get-away-from-it-all type.

Rating:
Summary: I agree with the author's self graded review: an 'A'.
Review: Romance, eggs, bacon, solitude, CB radios, and big, big woods.

Rating:
Summary: In Response to the review "A trashy, worthless book"...
Review: The person who wrote this review must be completely immune to subtext. Abbey is such a raw, emotional expositor on nature. This book he considered his masterwork, I think because he saw it as his best, most personal expression of how he felt, both about the red rock region and his late wife. In this book he reconciles the loss of the later and diminishment of the former, yet doesn't succumb to any easy answers about what happens to either. Vicious in its simplicity. I recommend it if you've read some Abbey and want to get into his head a bit.

Rating:
Summary: Orphic metaphor
Review: This beautiful book is especially powerful due to its Orphic metaphor. Will and Sandy talk about the river going to Hades. Ballantine is obviously a Thracian. Will disdains Ballantine's poor outlook on life and looks for his own inner peace. Will has a fatal fault (like Orpheus' looking back to see if Euridice is there when Doubt taunts him) when he can't tell Sandy he loves her and would like to marry her. The Air Force cadet is also a Thracian. Will won't fight him. Finally, Will descends into the Underworld (the terribly hot canyon) at the end of the book looking for his Euridice (Sandy).

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile read
Review: This is an interesting little book. Abbey captures the feeling of isolation like no other author I've read. Unlike most authors, Abbey convinces readers of the joy of isolation.

Rating:
Summary: mystical and enchanting love story
Review: This is perhaps Abbey's most poetic, beautiful book--and it often reminds one of the sun slanting through trees in a forest. Poetically written and entrancing, on one level it's a memorial for Abbey's late wife and his heart-torn reaction to her death, on another level it's a struggle between hope and cynicism, and on another level it's a very moving, beautiful romance between a rough forest ranger and a young woman. It has plenty of nature and landscape observations evoking the pine forests of the west so that you'll feel as if you spent a long time visiting them when you finish this book. It's one long ode to the wilderness and to wild love, and I enjoyed it and was moved by it equally. It'll make you want to go outdoors. One warning--it has plenty of frank depictions of sexuality and also one extremely sexist character--but this is part of the novel, one theme it is exploring is true love as opposed to the typical cynical view of many people so anyone who can't seperate the author's POV from his character's could be offended--but I found the whole thing deliriously beautiful. A sensuous, special book you can read many times over--or maybe once in your life, you'll remember it forever.