One Life at a Time, Please

The Journey Home (Plume) "I am not a naturalist. I never was and never will be a naturalist." So Ed Abbey opens The Journey Home, a collection of essays that turns every page or two to some aspect of the natural history of the desert West. Abbey had recently been compared to Henry Thoreau as a writer...	Down the River (Plume) "Be of good cheer," the war-horse Edward Abbey advises, "the military-industrial state will soon collapse." This sparkling book, which takes us up and down rivers and across mountains and deserts, is the perfect antidote to despair. Along the way, Abbey makes time for Thoreau...	Abbey's Road Curmudgeon, environmental brawler, and literary desert rat, Edward Abbey nursed dreams of one day walking out into the wild "to become one with the landscape. To just... disappear." He made valiant efforts to make good on that dream of escape in sometimes harebrained, often d...	The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel Just before he died in 1989, Ed Abbey published what he called his "honest novel," one loosely based on his own life. Early in its opening pages, Abbey's alter ego, Lightcap, takes off from his nearly empty home (its contents just removed by a disgruntled spouse) in Tucson, Ar...	Fire on the Mountain Fire on the Mountain Grandfather John Vogelin's land is his life -- a barren stretch of New Mexican wilderness, mercifully bypassed by civilization. Then the government moves in. And suddenly the elderly, mule-stubborn rancher is confronting the combined land-grabbing greed of th...
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto): Notes from a Secret Journal For the first time in softcover, Edward Abbey's last book, a collection of unforgettable barbs of wisdom from the best-selling author of The Monkey Wrench Gang.Notes from a Secret JournalEdward Abbey on:Government-"Terrorism: deadly violence against humans and other living things...	Good News: A Novel (Plume)	Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, the noted author's most enduring nonfiction work, is an account of Abbey's seasons as a ranger at Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah. Abbey reflects on the nature of the Colorado Plateau desert, on the condition of our remaining wildern...	Black Sun: A Novel BLACK SUN, a bittersweet love story, is about a forest ranger -- loner, iconclast, lover of the rugged life -- who falls for an utterly beguiling freckle-faced "American princess" half his age. Like Lady Chatterley's lover, he initiates her into the rite of sex and the stark, ...	Brave Cowboy Jack Burnes is a loner at odds with modern civilization. A man out of time, he rides a feisty chestnut mare across the New West -- a once beautiful land smothered beneath airstrips and superhighways. And he lives by a personal code of ethics that sets him on a collision course wi...

Hit and miss collection of Abbey essays
Edward Abbey's curmudgeonly persona permeates this collection of essays organized by topic (politics, travel, books and art and nature love). This is one of Abbey's later books, a mish-mash of essays, magazine articles and book prefaces, and it has a disjointed feel. When Abbey describes a journey, like his description of a houseboat trip on Lake Powell, he is magical. When he decides to be political or critical, when the desert rat Abbey comes to fore, he just comes off as too ranting, too artful, trying to hard to be clever and angry at the same time. This is always Abbey, or, I could argue, any artist, at their worst -- when they become so self conscious of their persona that they have to pander to it to maintain the illusion of it. That's at least how Abbey comes off to me in the rantings in this book. His article about a trip to San Francisco shines when it describes his visit to Robinson Jeffers house, but could do without the pithy descriptions of his daughter and meeting with the magazine editor. Read "One Life..." one story at a time. If you don't like one, skip it and move on. There are enough pleasing nuggets to satisfy both avid fan and neophyte alike.

Abbey reveals some weakness in his character and writings
I had great expectations after reading the first essay: Free Speech. I feel like the book went downhill from there. Abbey seems particularly fond of wandering off by himself, but frankly, when he's part of a white-water rafting excursion, I have serious doubts that they would even let him do that. I'm certain now that he's taking considerable "artistic license" in some of these essays. For me the low point was "Writer's Credo". I felt a strong level of insincerity in this piece - How can a writer feel it's his duty to criticize everyone around him without first subjecting himself to the same standards. Frankly, at best, "Credo" is just a justification for Abbey's misanthropic tendencies. At worst, it's a lie. "Krutch" was just plain boring. "Sex" was somewhat redeeming.I'm not sure what to say about "Sportsmen" - which as Abbey puts it, is simply excerpts from a printed leaflet. It sure was scary. The question is, with the questions raised about Abbey's honesty of description, and sincerity of purpose, how factual is this piece titled "Sportsmen"? I don't want to believe it, and Abbey spent the whole rest of the book crying wolf. I don't know.I absolutely love some of Abbey's books. We all love "Desert Solitaire", and the charicatures of "The Monkey Wrench Gang", etc., are wonderful. But this patchwork of rehashed essays seems just like a cheap way to make some extra cash. In summary, a careful read of this bookwill likely expand your image of this writer, but leave you with questions about his veracity. I guess the next book for me will have to be "Confessions". Don't make this your first foray into Abbey's world. You're likely to miss the best.

Abbey's best non-fiction after Desert Solitaire
Of all Abbey's non-fiction titles, I liked One Life at A Time best after Desert Solitaire. It's vintage Abbey at his best. You may not agree with his political views in this book of essays. But you'll find his arguments compelling and logical. "Immigration And Other Liberal Taboos" is a classic. So is "The Future of Sex" in which he asks the question, "What is femininity?" Gloria Steinham be damned.

Good, but not his best
Let me say one thing right up front: Ed Abbey is my favorite author. From the lyrical imagery of "Beyond the Wall" to the alternating landscapes and polemics of "Desert Solitaire" to the introspective fiction of "The Black Sun," Abbey at his best was like no other author. That said, "One Life at a Time, Please" is not my favorite Abbey book. Always a mercurial writer, ("when he was good, he was very, very good, but when he was bad he was awful"), this is a very uneven book. Since it is a collection of essays originally written as lectures, magazine articles, and book forewards, you'd expect a certain amount of variability, but "One Life at a Time, Please" has more highs and lows than a Canyonlands relief map.Some of the essays are very good--"A Writer's Credo" and "The Future of Sex," for example. Others, like "River of No Return," illustrate his trademark power to breathe extraordinary life into otherwise ordinary adventures. My main complaint is with the collection of essays in the section titled "Politics." In "A Writer's Credo," Abbey eloquently argues that it is the writer's responsibility to be a critic of the society in which he lives, so as to foster positive change in that society. But he seems to forget that to be effective, the writer must also persuade. The vitriolic essays in "Politics" may please existing ecodefenders but are more likely to alienate those important readers who are still undecided. If the result causes people to turn away from environmentalism rather than embrace it, they do more harm than good. Abbey himself seemed to recognize the danger of his ways in the excellent essay, "Mr Krutch."Would I recommend the book? Absolutely yes. Those already familiar with Abbey will find it an enlightening insight into the enigmatic old misanthrope's personality. New readers will discover an often eloquent leader in 20th century environmentalism. One caution, though. If you've never read Abbey before, save the section titled "Politics" until the end. That way you'll be less likely to fling the book across the room into a roaring fireplace, or if you do, you'll at least have gotten more of your money's worth.

An appetizer to the seven course meal that is Edward Abbey!
This book of essays gives the reader new to Abbey a brief but coherent representation of his cannon. Among favorites in the book are "Theory of Anarchy" where he outlines a lifestyle and society where the individual is priority; "Lake Powell Houseboat" where Abbey uses the pastoral wonder of the Colorado River to reflect on personal experience; and finally the flag ship essay of the entire collection: "A Writer's Credo." Here Abbey outlines the true purpose of the freelance writer "to oppose injustice, to defy power, and to speak out for the voiceless." All Abbey followers should own this book and all who are interested should buy one