lastcabtonowhere's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
4.0
Ed Abbey at a newspaper desk
That's the best way to describe much of what Bowden writes here, since most of it comes from his time on the police desk at the Tucson Citizen. And it, and his nature essays, are in Abbey's vein without being in any way derivative. (It's really the best way to describe Bowden in general, in fact.)
Watch him recreate the treks the mojados take across the Sonoran Desert. Here him renarrate some of his crime story coverage. Let him shine a flashlight on a bit of Tucson.
That's the best way to describe much of what Bowden writes here, since most of it comes from his time on the police desk at the Tucson Citizen. And it, and his nature essays, are in Abbey's vein without being in any way derivative. (It's really the best way to describe Bowden in general, in fact.)
Watch him recreate the treks the mojados take across the Sonoran Desert. Here him renarrate some of his crime story coverage. Let him shine a flashlight on a bit of Tucson.
robyn_m's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars // Raw and powerful... but I'm not sure my heart can suffer a second reading.
Within the beauty of the desert lies the ugliness of man; this is the essence of Bowden's "Blue Desert". Women are objectified, men are beasts, and the desert spares no one.
There are complex issues presented here, often in an objective manner. The loss of native lands and ways, the loss of wilderness, the loss of humanity, and the loss of hope. Greed. Development. Border crossings. Injustice.
From "Black", page 144:
"We are beginning to realize what we have lost with our wonderful inventions and our monstrous new powers. We are becoming more and more aware that our civilization destroys the foundations that support it by devouring the earth and the things of the earth. // But we don't have the courage to back away, to stop, to restrain ourselves. I know I don't."
The 2017 foreword by Francisco Cantú lends context to the book, originally published in 1986. I'd recommend reading the foreword if you're contemplating whether or not to embark on this journey of essays. While I anticipated some of the book's darkness, I was not prepared for the multiple mentions of rape and pedophilia -- Bowden's work as a reporter / journalist often took him to the underbelly of humanity.
Within the beauty of the desert lies the ugliness of man; this is the essence of Bowden's "Blue Desert". Women are objectified, men are beasts, and the desert spares no one.
There are complex issues presented here, often in an objective manner. The loss of native lands and ways, the loss of wilderness, the loss of humanity, and the loss of hope. Greed. Development. Border crossings. Injustice.
From "Black", page 144:
"We are beginning to realize what we have lost with our wonderful inventions and our monstrous new powers. We are becoming more and more aware that our civilization destroys the foundations that support it by devouring the earth and the things of the earth. // But we don't have the courage to back away, to stop, to restrain ourselves. I know I don't."
The 2017 foreword by Francisco Cantú lends context to the book, originally published in 1986. I'd recommend reading the foreword if you're contemplating whether or not to embark on this journey of essays. While I anticipated some of the book's darkness, I was not prepared for the multiple mentions of rape and pedophilia -- Bowden's work as a reporter / journalist often took him to the underbelly of humanity.
jamiereadthis's review
5.0
Bowden suits me so well because he’s an observer in the manner I tend to be. (“I am not a union man. I am not the man who joins things. I am not a company man. I am not the man who ever believes in the corporation. And I am not neutral.”) I can run my blood hot over a subject and yet still be cool water, still not take sides. I’d rather observe the river, I’d rather cross the river, I’d rather observe it again from the opposite side. I like, too much, the march of contradiction. (“This book is fat with contradictions,” Bowden promises, “but sounds one steady note: the land.”)
But observing the world in that way is wanting to experience it more than judge it. That’s what you find here. Experiences. Not judgements, occasionally opinions, occasionally strong opinions, but not conclusions, not solutions. Just experiences. Walk a hundred miles through the blue desert in order to understand. Etc.
Here is the test, I think, if Bowden will suit you so well too:
But observing the world in that way is wanting to experience it more than judge it. That’s what you find here. Experiences. Not judgements, occasionally opinions, occasionally strong opinions, but not conclusions, not solutions. Just experiences. Walk a hundred miles through the blue desert in order to understand. Etc.
Here is the test, I think, if Bowden will suit you so well too:
“I have been counseled at length by a friend who for decades has flourished as a freelance writer of nature stories. He warned me to avoid all colorful references to the casino (“none of those clinking ice cubes in glasses of whiskey,” he fumed) and play it straight and be rich in technical information. This is good advice that I find hard to follow. I have yet to meet the casino that cannot seduce me. The pits are so full of human greed and human hope and always there are these little touches— the men in the glass room packing sacks of money and wearing smocks that have no pockets— that make me glad to be a human being. There are few places as honest as the rampant fraud and fantasy of a casino. Here we let down our hair, our pants, our everything and confess to all our secret hungers.”
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