Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Question: What do you get when you cross a left-wing tree-huggin' environmentalist nut-job with right-wing pistol-toting government-conspiracy theorist nut-job with an educated, articulate, classical music enthusiast with a blue-color work ethic and a cutting sense of humor?

Answer: Edward Abbey, author of Desert Solitaire.

For those familiar with nature writing (aka environmental non-fiction) Abbey hardly needs an introduction. And his work, Desert Solitaire, which describes his experience as a ranger in Arches National Monument near Moab,Utah in the late 1950s is canonical.

Desert Solitaire is in many ways fascinatingly schizophrenic, but unified in both theme (that a natural experience is both mystical and scientific, touching and brutal) and style (Abbey's prose fluctuates between terse and florid). Like all good nature writing, Abbey will offer the reader an extended natural history of the area, complete with stories of man, woman, flower, tree, and rock. NOTE: I always like to be near a computer with Google images available so that I can see the wide variety of flora and fauna described.

But what makes Desert Solitaire great is Abbey's gruff, romantic passion for the desert and his equally gruff and passionate prose. And by passionate, I do not mean purple:

From his introduction

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This [book, Desert Solitaire] is not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial. A bloody rock. Don't drop it on your foot -- throw it at something big and glassy. What have you got to lose?

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Sometimes, Desert Solitaire is unsettling. Abbey ponders whether he could kill a rabbit with a rock. So he tries it and "brains the little bastard" where it stood. Later, he declares his soul "clean as snow."

There's a story of a love-triangle gone wrong during the uranium mining days. There's the story of Abbey's voyage down Glen Canyon, whose fate is to be dammed and turned into Lake Powell. And, of course, there's Abbey's humor -- In arguing for eliminating all motorized transport in natural parks he states,

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we have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms,and other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our natural parks with the same deference, for they, too, are holy places

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In summary, Desert Solitaire is one of those rare books that is poetic and barbaric, irreverent and sanctimonious, scientific and mystical. But overall, captivating.

My rating: 10 freshly cut-down billboards out of a possible 10.

Sweet review, C.

And I’m not just saying that because I like the book - I do. Or because I'm a member of the Sierra Club - I am. I am saying that because it was a nice review. BTW Ed Abbey had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Sahara Club (his coinage).

Desert Solitaire has got to be one of the best ‘nature-books’ ever written about the US desert southwest. And it’s one of my all-time-favorites. I still read it from time to time. It clears my head after a long day in the city, as a brisk walk in the woods would.
Anyway, I think you’re right about Ed Abbey: he’s uncategorizable – part naturalist, part hillbilly. And, like Wallace Stegner and other western writers, he was almost totally ignored by the ‘eastern literary establishment.’

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Originally Posted by Sancho

And, like Wallace Stegner and other western writers, he was almost totally ignored by the ‘eastern literary establishment.’

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Truer words have hardly been spoken, Sancho. Glad you liked the review. To be honest, I've read Desert Solitare nigh 7 to 10 times now. It's a great read -- and, as you note, a book that should be canonical outside the realm of environmental non-fiction. It's that good. And Abbey has one of the most distinctive prose styles that the US has ever produced.

Agree with the Stegner assessment as well. One of these days I need to read a few more of his texts -- I've enjoyed a book of his non-fiction essays, Angle of Repose and Big Rock Candy Mountain.

As good a nonfiction writer as he was, I think Abbey was an even better novelist. He could well be the most underrated American writer of the latter twentieth century.

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Originally Posted by Jermac

As good a nonfiction writer as he was, I think Abbey was an even better novelist. He could well be the most underrated American writer of the latter twentieth century.

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You know, I've always enjoyed his non-fiction more than his fiction. But don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed The Money Wrench Gang, Black Sun, and A Fool's Progress, but Abbey himself, or at least the character that he portrays in his nonfiction is just so compelling to me.

Add to the fact that I like nonfiction better than fiction, generally and well. . . . I'm a bit bias. But let me get this post back on track. I mean to say, yes, I agree that his fiction does tend to get underplayed when looking at his literary production.

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Originally Posted by The Comedian

You know, I've always enjoyed his non-fiction more than his fiction.

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I sort of came at Ed Abbey’s stuff the other way around. I started with his fiction but hesitated to read Desert Solitaire, thinking it was just a boring nature book. The other way I got started on Ed Abbey was through the accident of alphabetization: since the fiction section of my local book store is organized by the author’s last name, I’d get to Abbey’s shelf first. Anyhow, I was dead wrong about Desert Solitaire. I now believe it’s his best work.

But getting off topic, as I like to do here, and thinking of his fiction and his unique style, I liked this sentence near the beginning of Fool’s Progress:

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…slamming the door behind her. Slams it so hard the replastered wall around the doorframe shivers into a network of fine reticulations, revealing the hand of a nonunion craftsman.

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In one sentence: his wife angrily leaves him; and we know something about the quality of his house, his social class, and his opinion on organized labor.

I'm glad to see a review of it here, as I love that book, along with most of his work. (He has a few books I've not yet read, but they're in the minority.) Definitely an under-rated writer, and I think this is in large part due to the 'hillbilly' image. Not to mention, Desert Solitaire is one of the few books that I can honestly say changed my life and way of thinking. If there's any justice in the world that masterpiece will eventually be reprinted in centuries to come in the 'Classics' section and be on Classics reading lists. However, given the abrasive nature the book at times displays and the sacred cows he chooses to take aim at, I don't see this happening.

Thanks for the comment Dark Star. I totally agree with you about the overall under-ratedness of Abbey. I also think that he gets pigeon holed into a "nature writer" category is also cause for his being under appreciated.

Of course that few people read or value him makes him all the more appealing to me. ;)

I think Edward Abbey may suffer by his name being so close to Edward Albee the three-time-Pultizer-Prize-winning dramatist.

I picked up Desert Solitaire as a teenager in the mid 70s. I am not talented enough to express it's impact on me. I read nearly all Abbey's works, I prowled the southwest, I still remember the moment when I heard of his death.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately, I recall he said "We have a right to be here, but not everywhere and not all at once." Can anyone tell me if he actually said that?