Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape [Hardcover]

Terry Tempest Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1995

Beautifully illuminated with drawings and paintings by noted artist Mary Frank, Williams, one of the West's most intense and lyrical writers, invokes the lure and drama of the landscape. This is an incandescent meditation--in word and image--on the physical vastness and beauty of the desert and the spiritual place one woman finds for herself there.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Beautifully illuminated with drawings and paintings by noted artist Mary Frank, Williams, one of the West's most intense and lyrical writers, invokes the lure and drama of the landscape. This is an incandescent meditation--in word and image--on the physical vastness and beauty of the desert and the spiritual place one woman finds for herself there.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 62 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1st edition (September 26, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679439994
• ISBN-13: 978-0679439998
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Ecosystems > Deserts

More About the Author

She is the award-winning author of Leap, An Unspoken Hunger, Refuge & most recently Red - A Desert Reader. She lives in Castle Valley, Utah.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, Erotic Travelogue of the Mind, June 26, 2000

By 

"justbrowsing" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape (Hardcover)

This book is short: 62 pages is an exaggeration, since many of those pages are filled with sketches and since the book itself is only about the size of a CD case. But what it lacks in length it more than makes up for in beauty. Terry Tempest Williams is an incredible, widely respected writer, and this book was released to much critical acclaim. Her book details a woman hiking in the canyons of southern Utah, and the thoughts that flash through her mind as she walks, and the freedom she feels in nature: the kinds of thoughts we all have when we go hiking, but aren't able to put down on paper as well as she.

The thoughts the author has are the reason those of us who love the outdoors love them so much. The solitary, beautiful, amazing feeling of being alone - literally or figuratively - with the earth (or God - your pick) in its magnificent splendor, and of the thrill of being alive.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great things come in small packages, August 12, 2000

By 

K. Parsons "Hailing from the mountaintop!" (Idyllwild, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape (Hardcover)

Williams has put together a visceral, haunting, beautiful stream of consciousness aria here. This little tiny book has become one of my very favorite works over the past few years I have owned a copy of it. It is one of those books that tends to find itself hidden on my bookshelf, and when I rediscover it I am in for a real treat. This is the story of a woman who is so aware of her soul that it is almost ethereal. Walking the slot canyons of Utah and Arizona has always brought out powerful emotions within me, but after reading this book a few times I literally lose myself in the earth when hiking there now. Yes, this is a tale of love and love-making, but on such a spiritual level that it is easy to fall asleep and drift into a dreamy, watery place of serenity after reading it. What more can a book offer than that???? Save yourself the money usually spent on a "relaxing vacation" to a crowded get-away and set a fire in the fireplace, put on some Loreena McKennit and lose yourself in this treasure of a book. Mary Frank's sketches and watercolors set the stage and Terry Tempest Williams provides the magic carpet.

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, August 7, 2011

By 

Allan Stellar - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape (Hardcover)

Gonna set out the solar shower today--clean off eight days worth of gook, grime, (honest) sweat, filth, dirt, straw---and wander down to Chico to hear Terry Tempest Williams give a reading tonight.

In anticipation, I read the only book we have by her in the Cabin: "Desert Quartet". My spouse called this book: "eco-erotica"--and it is. Simple, tasteful line drawings of nudes by Mary Frank. Text by TTW which celebrates the four elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water). All written from the perspective of the canyon country of Utah.

I spent a couple of years in the canyon country. Marvelous! As far as I'm concerned...all of Southern Utah should be a National Park. Much of it is. Better yet, no child should be allowed to graduate from High School without hiking for a week in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks while reading Ed Abbey's classic "Desert Solitaire".

Terry Tempest Williams follows in Abbey's tradition (she even wrote the forward to "Postcards from Ed"): A Canyonlands, Enviro writer who celebrates the Earth. I look forward to hearing her words tonight.