Brown Dog of the Yaak : Essays on Art and Activism [Paperback]

Rick Bass (Author)

Book Description

Series: Credo | Publication Date: July 28, 1999

Rick Bass's dog Colter is the brown dog of the Yaak who charges through the mountain valleys following the scent of game. Bass gives a history of his years with Colter as a way of understanding what is intuitive in his quest to create art

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In four essays, Bass (The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness, etc.) ponders the relationship between literature and activism, organically fusing nature writing, environmentalism and the quest for meaning, leaping from the particular to the universal, from individual worries to planetary concerns, with breathtaking ease. As Bass discusses the difficulty of juggling the roles of writer and conservationist, his central theme emerges: art, which makes order out of chaos, and activism, which transforms the physical world, complement each other. The unifying thread in these reflections, oddly, is Colter, Bass's brown, German shorthaired pointer, a dog that helped him hunt grouse and pheasants in Montana's north woods. Bass draws some strained parallels between the dog's dexterity and the artist's forays into reality and imagination, yet anyone who has ever mourned the loss of a pet (and especially readers who have actually worked with dogs, as hunters do) will find solace in his soaring tribute to man's best friend. The collection's other major motif is the importance of preserving the Yaak, a wild valley between the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies where a handful of caribou, grizzly bears, bald eagles and other endangered species still survive. Bass believes that the area's logging industry should give way to sustainable forestry, and he calls for federal protection of his home's roadless wildlands. These eloquent essays renew the spirit and reawaken the senses. (May) FYI: Brown Dog of the Yaak launches Milkweed's new Credo series, which will address the concerns of contemporary nature writers. Scott Slovic is the series editor. Forthcoming books in the series will come from Patiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders and William Kittredge.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 1-57131-224-2 Bass (Where the Sea Used to Be, 1998, etc.) identifies the triangulate elements used to chart the course of his life and writing. The Bassian motivational universe is hardly a national secret, even to those most fleetingly acquainted with his work: In fiction and nonfiction, it is cut of a cloth, in praise and in defense of those wild places left on earth. One of his three essentials is thus place, in particular the Yaak valley of northwest Montana, his home, inspiration, solace, and love. On that place runs the brown dog, Bass's pointer, as graceful in the natural world as Bass would like to be. His dog, as irreducible as an element, goes lost, and his valley is imperiled by the same forces that rob wildness everywhere. What happens, Bass asks, when the durable falls away, when vital tethers are severed? ``What kind of stories do we tell, as we are falling? How do we live our lives?'' Two more guiding stars appear in his firmament: activism and writing. Both he considers as shadows compared with the reala rock is real, a wolf, a fir tree, his dogbut activism is the tool our political culture affords those who are fiercely protective of the real, and no matter how tedious or against the grain, it must be deployed, and it must be done artfully. Writing as well can touch the wild, ``having protected, kept alive, or even enhanced the shape'' of the landscape's gifts. For Bass, these three anchors are also sanctuaries, one of which he will choose as a place where he can hide from the other two; each also opens up experiences left untouched by the others, to be explored as one might a strange house, room to room. Bass is an eloquent essayist; he somehow avoids sermonizing while lecturing, though he too often writes of things better seen and not said, like ``starlight on the fur of sleeping wolves,'' which sounds awfully mawkish. Pleasant, but Bass's credo didn't need a separate book to clarify; none of his works skirt the issue. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions; First edition. edition (July 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571312242
• ISBN-13: 978-1571312242
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,623,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the love of wilderness and activism, March 18, 2000

By 

Kozinski - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brown Dog of the Yaak : Essays on Art and Activism (Paperback)

There is nowadays shortage of true love stories. This is a book about a love. Love of nature and wilderness and a fine dog. As in good love story, there is ecstasy in living with nature and in descriptions of beauty of his country, but there is also suffering and struggle and rage. In the unique blend of keen observations of naturalist and hunter, of ruminations on literary pursuits, and of environmental activism, Bass paints most intricate tapestry on narrative. One of best nature writings. One of the best appeal for preservation of our vanishing wilderness. Let us all hope that somewhere in our government there is a reader who will be touched by grace of this book and be compelled to act.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Wandering Bass, October 22, 2001

By 

Jena Ball "Jena Ball" (North Carolina, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brown Dog of the Yaak : Essays on Art and Activism (Paperback)

In my humble opinion, Rick Bass is one of the finest writers working today - period. At his best his work shines with insight and speaks so clearly that it's almost painful to hear the truth articulated so accurately. That said, I confess to being a bit disappointed by this book. There are moments of beauty as always. The story of the mountain lion encountered while out hunting with Colter, for example, is classic Bass. Not only does he capture the intensity and danger of the moment, and manage to bring the personality of the lion alive, but he is able to make us laugh at his own thoughts as he struggles to overcome his fear. Really remarkable.

However, Bass is obsessed by the loss of his dog and what that loss has meant to him. He has already written a lovely book on the subject, but apparently it wasn't enough to ease his pain. In trying to tie the animal's death to his work as a writer and activist in this book, you can tell he's stretching it. It's almost as if the offer to write a book about activism was seen as another opportunity to voice his sorrow. Somehow it just doesn't work.

This is not to say that you shouldn't read this book. If nothing else it offers insight into the inner workings of one of our most gifted writers, but expect to struggle with Bass a bit. For once you get the feeling he hasn't gotten it all worked out, that the words he's chosen aren't quite what he meant to say in some places. To me, this is as valuable, and in some ways more meaningful, than reading the fine tuned stuff. It just isn't as satisfying.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about reading this book for me was the reaction I had when I finished. Ordinarily I have a strong feeling of satisfaction when I come to the end of a Bass book. I put it down and mentally tip my hat to a fellow writer. "Well done!" I say. This time however, I had a completely different response. At the end of Brown Dog of the Yak, I felt unsettled and slightly down. Even more unusual was the urge I had to look Bass up, take him by the hand, look him in the eye, and say, "It'll be all right, you'll see."