Customer Reviews

Black Sun: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is perhaps Abbey's most poetic, beautiful book--and it often reminds one of the sun slanting through trees in a forest. Poetically written and entrancing, on one level it's a memorial for Abbey's late wife and his heart-torn reaction to her death, on another level it's a struggle between hope and cynicism, and on another level it's a very moving, beautiful romance between a rough forest ranger and a young woman. It has plenty of nature and landscape observations evoking the pine forests of the west so that you'll feel as if you spent a long time visiting them when you finish this book. It's one long ode to the wilderness and to wild love, and I enjoyed it and was moved by it equally. It'll make you want to go outdoors. One warning--it has plenty of frank depictions of sexuality and also one extremely sexist character--but this is part of the novel, one theme it is exploring is true love as opposed to the typical cynical view of many people so anyone who can't seperate the author's POV from his character's could be offended--but I found the whole thing deliriously beautiful. A sensuous, special book you can read many times over--or maybe once in your life, you'll remember it forever.

I tore through "Black Sun" in a couple days. I find Abbey's dialogue, both here and in his more famous "Monkey Wrench Gang," to be a bit clunky, but his nature descriptions are spot on.

The main character, Gatlin, is a ranger who works alone on a fire lookout tower in some unnamed western locale (though by the clues given it seems to be somewhere near the Grand Canyon). Gatlin's crisis: Can he leave nature for the love of a woman? For anyone enthralled by wild places, adventure, travel, or any other pursuit that supersedes relationships, this dilemma is remarkably prescient.

Readers looking for the curmudgeonly environmental polemicist Abbey in "Black Sun" will be disappointed. Readers can expect an easy read, beautiful nature descriptions, and a simple, tragic, poetically elegaic love story. Abbey never was very good at portraying the human condition. He regarded our species as a scourge on the landscape. But "Black Sun" is the most human book he ever wrote.

This is probably Edward Abbey's least political work, and the cranky old desert conservationist came up with a surprisingly emotional and bittersweet love story. The main character has escaped his painful past by taking up a very lonely job at a fire tower near the Grand Canyon, getting closer to nature and further from other people, as a way to battle his demons. He then unexpectedly falls in love with a younger woman who is working at the park, but can't figure out how to make her part of his lonely existence, which may or may not be bringing him true happiness. But in the end, he has loneliness forced upon him again anyway, as the girl disappears back into nature herself. One problem with this novel is the stilted interpersonal dialogue, which was never Abbey's strength, while he was even less adept at building a believable romance. But on the good side, this novel, based to an unclear degree on Abbey's true experiences, is a remarkably emotional exploration of the true loneliness that can be found when one communes with nature for the long haul, and how this loneliness can both lift and crush one's spirits. [~doomsdayer520~]

An early Abbey work, Black Sun is a very good novel written in a style similar to John D. MacDonald only more alive, more real. Will Gatlin is much like Travis McGee, an imperfect fellow who has learned to live life on his own terms and makes no apologies for it. An entertaining read, this is one you won't want to put down until you've finished it.

The person who wrote this review must be completely immune to subtext. Abbey is such a raw, emotional expositor on nature. This book he considered his masterwork, I think because he saw it as his best, most personal expression of how he felt, both about the red rock region and his late wife. In this book he reconciles the loss of the later and diminishment of the former, yet doesn't succumb to any easy answers about what happens to either. Vicious in its simplicity. I recommend it if you've read some Abbey and want to get into his head a bit.

Beautiful, lyrical, magical - the best book Abbey ever wrote, in my opinion. I suppose many would argue the point, as Abbey doesn't address environmental issues at all, and the story is strictly a love story. But it is a wonderful story written in remarkable metaphorical prose - fantastic.

In typical Ed Abbey fashion, a beautiful book that explores the depth of Abbey's romantic side. Environmental and isolationist, this book will appeal to the outdoorsy, just-want-to-get-away-from-it-all type.

This is an interesting little book. Abbey captures the feeling of isolation like no other author I've read. Unlike most authors, Abbey convinces readers of the joy of isolation.

Black Sun.... The love of nature, the love of a women, bringing them both together to obtain the highest form of spirituality. Abbey draws the reader in on this one. He forms a scene of sexual mysticism that wraps itself within the forests.

A fire ranger. A innocent, young women. The forest. Love of sex, nature and self. This book really brings the true Edward Abbey out in the open

For those of you who feel this is not a "normal" Abbey book, you are right in one sence but not totally. You must take into account that this book was written shortly after his wife passed away. So there were thoughts and feelings and emotions that he was going through that dictated the lay of this book. The woman who disappears, never seen again, all boils back to the heartbreak Abbey was going through after loosing his young wife. This is a great book to pick up if you want to read one of Abbey's different styles of writing.