可借阅:*
图书馆 | 资料类型 | 排架号 | 子计数 | 书架位置 | 状态 | 图书预约 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
正在检索... Central | Book | 978 HOLT | 1 | Stacks | 正在检索... 未知 | 正在检索... 不可借阅 |
正在检索... Research | Book | F595.3.H64 2000 | 1 | Stacks | 正在检索... 未知 | 正在检索... 不可借阅 |
链接这些题名
已订购
摘要
摘要
The land out here stands alone beneath skies filled with so many stars, planets, moons, and fizzling meteors that to look at all of it is to knock out your head.The brain can't take in all of the information, all of the truth that shines away up in the eternal dark.Eyes roll back into the head and thought processes short circuit.That's what the northern high plains are.What they do to a person.Look above or let the eye wander along the incomprehensible vastness of this wide-open country, and you drift swiftly into a world of myth and legend.If you want to feel what flows out here, hell, if you just want to survive way back in the middle of everywhere, you have to open up, suspend your beliefs, and submit to the land.Harsh, bone dry, freezing, unforgiving.And magic.Coyote Nowhere - a phrase taken from Jack Kerouac's On the Road - accomplishes all of this while exploring and examining the northern high plains through John Holt's words and Ginny Diers's photographs.Together, they look for the true west, not the shortsighted vision myopically viewed by most as they whiz here and there along the interstate, rarely seeing anything.The book appears at the start of a new century and millenium and is a unique view of the west as seen through eyes that have stared down the barrels of plenty of hard living and never enough truth.The northern high plains roll east from the base of the Rocky Mountains like still-life waves for hundreds of miles.From Canada's Northwest Territories down through Montana and into Wyoming, the sparsely populated country drifts off eternally.Isolated pockets of mountains rise thousands of feet above what was once an ancient sea bed and home to dinosaurs.Millions of acres of native grass sway back and forth in the wind or bake under a wicked sun.Yet, despite all of this space, threats to the country rain down in the form of strip-mining, oil exploration, and land development, to name a few.Where is this place headed?Where has it been through time?Coyote Nowhere begins in late spring in Livingston, Montana and describes a loop that courses down through Wyoming, back into Montana, crosses the border into Alberta, Canada, and heads north to the Northwest Territories before winding up back in Livingston as winter closes in.Along the way, Holt and Diers camp, fish, hang out in cowboy bars, dodge careening oil rig semis, meet their fair share of law enforcement officials, and sink even further into the country that has such a firm hold on them.
评论 (3)
Kirkus评论
A nicely tart travelogue set in Big Sky country. Montana has fewer than a million year-round residents, but at times it seems as if every one of them has written or is writing a memoir. This account is, at first glance, more of the same, populated by the obligatory outdoorsmen, Indians, and cowboys. But Holt (Knee Deep in Montanas Trout Streams, not reviewed) quickly distinguishes himself. Not only is he a better than average writer, he also has an ironic sense of his own shortcomingshes an acrophobiac who worries about lightning, smokes too much, and knows the insides of too many barroomsand a barely controlled rage about all manner of local-interest subjects (from the Californication of Montana to the New Age cooptation of American Indian culture). His ill temper carries much of the narrative, as Holt takes shots at fools who think theyve discovered spiritual enlightenment the minute they pull their $40K SUVs up alongside a teepee, and as he denounces the rapacious ways of latter-day colonialists like media mogul Ted Turner (buying up the West for his own pleasure under the guise of raising bison and saving wolves). In the company of his companion Ginny Diers, whose well-made photographs adorn the text, Holt travels to some truly wonderful placesthe Crazy Mountains, the Missouri Breaks, the flanks of the Yellowstonebut his notes on their beauty are less interesting than his certitude that such places will disappear if Montanas development craze continues. He holds out hope, though, observing that history is cyclical, and that one day the glitzy ski resorts and all of the expensive fly-fishing guides will find out the Wests ultimate truth, when the weather turns truly fierce for a series of winters or droughts kill off the troutwhereupon, he prays, the carpetbaggers and movie stars will move on and leave Montana to worthier souls. Holts acid portrait is for anyone who cherishes the truly wild West.
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Holt and Long, two Montana writers who set out to find America's Old West buried beneath its twenty-first-century trappings, have produced remarkably entertaining books, effectively combining memoir, travelogue, and history. Holt, the author of 13 previous books (mostly about fishing in Montana), set out with his partner, photographer Ginny Diers, to peel back the modern age and reveal the remnants of the Old West. He found what he was looking for in the lives of a handful of ranchers, Native Americans, and fisherman, all of whom are living like their ancestors might have lived a century and a half ago. He constantly contrasts the West he loves with the West being invaded by vacationers, recreational-vehicle owners, and others who seem determined to destroy what precious little remains of the glorious Wild West. This is a moving book and a heartfelt plea to keep the West alive. Although perhaps not quite so aggressive (Holt's prose is full of scathing remarks about people who thoughtlessly trample over the remnants of the Old West), Long's book is just as passionate. A former newspaper journalist who specialized in natural history and environmental issues related to the western states, Long took to the road with his wife, Karen Nichols (who, like Holt's companion, is a photographer), to retrace the steps of Lewis and Clark from the Missouri River to the Pacific. Like Holt, Long wanted to rediscover the past, to recapture the excitement Lewis and Clark must have felt when they saw grizzlies and beautiful vistas and tall, ancient trees for the first time. These books, separately or together, are sure to appeal to readers with an interest in travel or the American West. --David Pitt
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Holt has written numerous articles and authored 11 works of nonfiction and two novels. His latest is a captivating travel narrative that reveals his passion for fishing and his love of the rugged rural beauty of the West. Recounting his extensive travels through the Northwest, mainly Montana and the area around Canada's Great Slave Lake, Holt provides an interesting look at the history and uniqueness of the area while commenting on the effects of modernization and the rise and fall of populations. His writing style blends humor, suspense, facts, and anecdotes, and his descriptive prose reveals the diverse beauty of the northern high plains, plateaus, and mountains. Holt also details the way of life of its people, captured through research, interviews, and random encounters. Much of Holt's writing delves into the art of fishing, but readers will also get an essence of this particular region of North America. An enjoyable read.DJo-Anne Mary Benson, Osgoode, Ont. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.