A New Take on Old West Lit

In the September High Country News, Laura Pritchett wrote that she doesn’t want to live up to some stereotyped image of the “new” western woman if it means she has to gut trout (“The Western Lit Blues”). She’s “starting to get a little worried” that westerners have lives that are more complex than the ones she sometimes sees portrayed on the printed page. “There’s more going on with life out here in the West than is often rendered in books,” she says. But the publishers—mostly in New York--“expect certain patterns” and “want stereotypes to be affirmed.” At the same time, they want a novel to reflect the “authentic” West.

In a novel, the plot is driven by one of two questions. One is, “What is the character thinking? The other is, “What happens next?” Thanks to a very complicated interplay of literary supply and demand, the nineteenth and early twentieth West produced an inordinate number of “What happens next” books. Adventure books, romance books. In 1902 Owen Wister called his own novel, The Virginian, a “colonial romance.” And the demand for horse operas and ten-penny potboilers led to books called “westerns” and “westerns” led to all this stereotyping.

Words for the Western Landscape

In his introduction to Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, editor Barry Lopez writes, “The land beyond our towns, for many, has become a generalized landscape of hills and valleys, of beaches, rivers and monotonous deserts…almost without our knowing it, the particulars of these landscapes have slipped away from us.” Published this year in a paperback edition by Trinity University Press, Home Ground (480 pages, $19.95) seeks to preserve terms that describe the natural landscape by compiling definitions written by accomplished writers.  Over the past month, New West has featured excerpts from Home Ground.  Today’s term is “sawtooth,” as described by Pattiann Rogers.  Rogers is an award-winning, Colorado-based poet.  Her most recent book is The Grand Array.

A New Take On Old West Lit

She won “Best Leading Actor” from the Omaha Actor’s Guild, packed the theater as Emily Dickinson in “The Belle of Amherst” and now she was on the phone asking me for Christmas material.

“I need a western piece to read for some charity appearances,” she said. “I won’t have time to read them all, so just pick one and I’ll cut it to fit the time requirements.”

Cripes. If there’s anything I hate worse than making decisions it’s making other people’s decisions.

Okay, so what makes a good Christmas story? The answer’s as obvious as an elephant in an outhouse. It shows how Christmas is a time when Evil is banished by Good and self-isolated people crave society. Look at A Christmas Carol or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. For that matter, look at “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or even The Nutcracker. Christmas is magic, Evil is overcome by Good and people celebrate.

This made Owen Wister’s “A Journey in Search of Christmas” my prime candidate. Lin McLean has a wad of roundup money in his jeans and an ache in his heart. Everyone in Cheyenne seems to know that a woman has made a fool of him by marrying him when she already had a husband. Looking to be alone, Lin takes the train to Denver. He intends to spend Christmas Eve by punishing a power of whiskey and blowing himself to a fine meal. He might even go to the theater. 

Words for the Western Landscape

In his introduction to Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, editor Barry Lopez writes, “The land beyond our towns, for many, has become a generalized landscape of hills and valleys, of beaches, rivers and monotonous deserts…almost without our knowing it, the particulars of these landscapes have slipped away from us.” Published this year in a paperback edition by Trinity University Press, Home Ground (480 pages, $19.95) seeks to preserve terms that describe the natural landscape by compiling definitions written by accomplished writers.  Over the past several weeks, New West has featured excerpts from Home Ground.  Today’s term is “racetrack valley,” as described by Stephen Graham Jones.  Jones is the author of several books, including the new story collection The One That Got Away.

Western Book Roundup

First, I want to thank all the readers who participated in last week’s book giveaway contest by leaving a comment on one of the three Best Books in the West posts.  I wrote everybody’s names on slips of paper and my daughter drew the winner from a bowl--she can’t read, so she couldn’t cheat.  Congratulations to Liz Clift of Ames, Iowa.  Your copy of Benjamin Percy’s The Wilding is on its way.  It’s convenient that she lives in Ames, because Percy lives there too, and she can track him down to sign her book.

And I have to say that I think New West Books & Writers readers and commenters are the best in the web—you are all so smart, well-read, and polite.  Even when I make a stupid mistake, you let me know with such tact.  It’s not like this everywhere on the web, compadres—for proof, just click over to the comment threads on any of New West’s articles about wolves or wilderness management.  Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.  I hope to do more book giveaways soon.  Okay, enough with the mushy stuff!

• The biggest news in the book world last week was Google’s announcement that its eBookstore opened for business.  Many indie bookstores had been sitting on the sidelines while Amazon and its Kindle and Apple and its iPad duked it out for digital book supremacy.  Google’s eBookstore allows indie booksellers to get in the digital book game because it provides e-books that are not formatted for a particular device (they work on most browsers, e-book readers, and iPhones), and Google allows individual bookstores to sell these e-books from their websites. 

Also in the Roundup: More on Google eBooks, The Denver Post reduces its book section, Craig Lancaster sells a Christmas story for charity, The Whitefish Review celebrates a new issue, and CutBank hosts a writing contest.

Words for the Western Landscape

In his introduction to Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, editor Barry Lopez writes, “The land beyond our towns, for many, has become a generalized landscape of hills and valleys, of beaches, rivers and monotonous deserts…almost without our knowing it, the particulars of these landscapes have slipped away from us.” Published this year in a paperback edition by Trinity University Press, Home Ground (480 pages, $19.95) seeks to preserve terms that describe the natural landscape by compiling definitions written by accomplished writers.  Over the next several weeks, New West will feature excerpts from Home Ground.  Today’s term is “hoodoo,” as described by John Daniel.  Daniel is an award-winning, Oregon-based author of such books as Rogue River Journal: A Winter Alone and Looking After: A Son’s Memoir.

Best Books In the West 2010

Here it is, the big moment where I bestow the tiaras and sashes for the very best Western books of the year.  Last year I narrowed my list down to five, and I was trying to do that this year, but I was having so much trouble with it, I thought, why agonize?  Why not just name six?  Who’s to stop me?  Okay, now would be a good time for a drum roll if you’ve got it:

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (W.W. Norton & Company, 602 pages, $26.95)

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has heard me gushing over Brady Udall’s hilarious and heartfelt The Lonely Polygamist that it is my favorite book I read this year.  Polygamists, ungovernable children, a dog in a diaper, a couch of contention, a brothel owner named Ted Leo, inconvenient chewing gum and loads of heart—what’s not to love?  Do yourself a favor and read this book so I can shut up about it already.

25 Best Western Books of 2010: Oregon, Utah, Wyoming & Other Western States

Today I continue my list of the 25 best books in the West for 2010 with books set in Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, and other western states, and books that roam throughout the region.  Please add your favorite Western books of the year in the comments.  If you leave a comment with your favorite book (or anything else you’d like to say) by Sunday, December 12, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of one of the best books in the West this year, The Wilding by Benjamin Percy.  Check back Wednesday I’ll announce my picks for the top six books of 2010 set in the West.

Oregon

My two favorite books from Oregon this year are both by young writers raised in the high desert of central Oregon near Bend.

River House (Tin House Books, 272 pages, $16.95) is the searchingly honest memoir of a young woman struck with an unconventional dream: After college and years of world travel, Sarahlee Lawrence decides she wants to build her own log house on the high desert ranch in central Oregon where she was raised.  This is nonfiction, but Lawrence’s life provided her the material of a classic, woman-vs.-nature drama that makes this a transfixing read.  Even if the closest you’ve ever come to building a house involved the use of Lincoln Logs, you’ll be taken in by River House.

25 Best Western Books of 2010: Colorado, Idaho, Montana & New Mexico

It is my pleasure to bring you the fourth annual New West Best Books in the West.  Today and tomorrow, I’ll be running down the 25 best books set in the American West or written by authors from this region in 2010.  I’ll break down my selections state by state, and list them according to their setting.  As always, I welcome audience participation.  Please add your favorite Western books of the year in the comments.  If you leave a comment by Sunday, December 12 on any of my three Best Books of 2010 posts, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of one of the best books in the West this year, The Wilding by Benjamin Percy.  Today I’ll discuss the best books of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and New Mexico.  Tomorrow, it’s on to Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, other western states, and books that roam throughout the region.  And on Wednesday I’ll narrow this list down and announce my picks for the top six books of 2010 set in the West.

Colorado

It was a light year for books by Colorado writers.  My favorite was Boulder-based Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing To Our Brains (W.W. Norton, 276 pages, $26.95), a thoughtful book that invites us to reflect on how our lives, attention spans, and brains have changed over the past heady decade of rapid adoption of constant use of the Internet.

Words for the Western Landscape

In his introduction to Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, editor Barry Lopez writes, “The land beyond our towns, for many, has become a generalized landscape of hills and valleys, of beaches, rivers and monotonous deserts…almost without our knowing it, the particulars of these landscapes have slipped away from us.” Published this year in a paperback edition by Trinity University Press, Home Ground (480 pages, $19.95) seeks to preserve terms that describe the natural landscape by compiling definitions written by accomplished writers.  Over the next several weeks, New West will feature excerpts from Home Ground.  Today’s term is “krummholz,” as described by William Kittredge.  Kittredge is the award-winning author of such books as Hole in the Sky and The Next Rodeo: New and Selected Essays.