Much darker than The Meadow ( )

This is one of those perfect books that makes it difficult to pick up anything else afterwards.

Though it's a novel, this is a nice companion book to James Galvin's classic, the Meadow. You could almost think of it as part II as the time is closer to the present, and the end of the Meadow, at which point open land is being parceled and essentially destroyed, is the beginning of this book.

The book has an almsot Edward Abbey feel to it in terms of the changing landscape and different groups fighting over the same area. But where Abbey's concepts and ideas rise to the top, overpowering his writing style, James Galvin treats each word with the same care and warmth that he gives to his overarching theme.

Another great writer, Tom Spanbauer, says that every writer has to do three things with readers: "Teach them something, make them laugh, and break their hearts." This book will teach you about ranching and the American West, make you laugh your ass off with character descriptions and wild tales, and if it doesn't break your heart, your blood must be pumping through something harder than the granite under Wyoming's soil. ( )

My husband was raised on a ranch and told me stories that sounded like what Galvin wrote in this book. Its nonlinear style was a bit confusing at first, but once I fell into the rhythm of the story, I had no trouble following. I would have liked the Apache tracker to be at least as developed as the other supporting male characters, who were well-developed. The women characters were inserted here and there, and appeared primarily in the male characters’ thoughts, somewhat problematic for me. The book is mainly about four men, their interactions, their regard for each other (not always positive), and their relationship to the land (again, not always positive). The prose was poetic, the story believable and the land well-known. Overall I enjoyed the book. ( )

When I was looking up Heart Mountain by Gretel Ehrlich on Amazon, I saw that people who had purchased Heart Mountain had also purchased this book by James Galvin. I'm familiar with Galvin, as he owns a small ranch about 30 miles north of here and he wrote a wonderful book about the area, entitled The Meadow, which I liked very much. (Ronn Kling, who owns a cabin with his brother in the area, is a neighbor of Glavin's.) This is an interesting book. I didn't care much for it at first, because it is told in a chopped-up, time-sliced way that I initially found confusing. But I was on a hike this weekend, and during those long stretches when you are alone with your thoughts, I kept thinking about this book. It's not the kind of blockbuster Western novel Heart Mountain is, but it was worth reading nevertheless. ( )