Customer Reviews

The Fiddleback Book: Lore of the Line Camp

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

 

 

The professional reviewers of this work are correct in their high opinions. In this work, Dr. Ulph, a Professor of History at Reed College, shares observations of the life of a cowpoke. Although the book is based on historical lore, Dr. Ulph infuses the text with his personal knowledge based on owning an eastern Oregon ranch on which he poked cows for many years. His sometimes cynical observations on the realities of this difficult life are quite appropriate, even if they may offend some readers who want romance rather than reality in their depiction of the old west.

If you're a wannabe, go elsewhere. If you think cows are "icky," then likewise. If your appreciation of horses is wholly based on English riding lessons you got in your teens, buy Anne McCaffrey novels (some of which I like, too), and don't bother with this. It's a book by someone who thought, while he was in the saddle, and it shows.

But if you're interested -- and that's your business -- in reading about buckaroo life in the 1950s on a huge ranch in really really really remote Nevada (Zoolander reference deliberate), then read Owen Ulph's book. The salty language, though authentic, makes this not for those under the age of 13 (that should handle most of the reviewers whose comments I've read so far). Test your brain (and vocabulary; Owen was a professor at Reed College for thirty years), and test your empathy. This is classic literature, in the spirit of Tom Watkins (who wrote the introduction), and in the spirit of Owen, himself, who died in late 2003. Just 'cause he's dead doesn't make this any better a book -- but it was great to begin with.

I don't get the reviewers who not only disliked this book but took the time to slam it here. Agreed, it's not for coffee-table reading (though I would have loved to see photos of the cowboys featured in it and the Fiddleback); it's meant to present a subject you can sink your teeth into. A bit self-indulgent, maybe. Ulph loves to indulge his vocabulary. But the humor and wit that often result make the reading of his long sentences a delight. I had to read some parts twice to get his point, but so what?

Ulph wants you to think and question. He's challenging every assumption people make about cowboys. He argues that the heroic character traits exhibited by real cowboys have been vulgarized by the popular media. Just to understand his analysis of the terms "gumption" and "maverick" is to get a whole history of ideas embedded in the culture. And you get a better grasp of how the use of that second word has worked so effectively by a candidate for public office.

I don't recommend this book for readers who don't want to consider ideas they may disagree with. I don't buy everything Ulph says myself. But laugh out loud I did several times as I read, because the cowboys he writes about are the real deal. I've looked for a book like this for a long time and am glad I found it.

I can agree that this book would not be for everyone. If you have grown up romanticizing horses and cowboys and you thought this might transport you further along that path, you might not find this book enjoyable. However, if you actually grew up on a ranch and were horseback from the age of 6, you will love the biting wit Mr. Ulph uses to describe the equine experience. He doesn't forget about the bovines either. He gives them equal amounts of center stage. I loved this book and have given several copies away as gifts to both my cowboy friends and the ones that "wannabe".

This book is one of a kind: cantankerously intelligent, uproariously funny, utterly irreverent, a delightful unfolding of one remarkable story after another. Ulph, an academic who abandoned academe to become a cowboy, paints an unforgettable portrait of life on a cow ranch, the way it really happened, not the way Hollywood portrays it. Beneath the sardonic humor and the grizzly reality of the cowhands' daily grind, Ulph brings to life a group of amazing individuals, whose stories and personalities remain etched in one's memory. In the same way that "Huck Finn" was high literature, this too is literature of the highest order: eloquent, understated, dramatic, finely crafted. The only bummer is that it's short, and comes to an end all too soon! A masterpiece of gritty, humorous writing!

The title of my review says it all.

It is difficult to say whether this collection is more trite than more mundane or visa versa. The author is so obviously full of himself and his eclectic choice of words do little to rescue this minor piece of work. I would not recommend this to anyone.

This is an illiterate and unentertaining diatribe by an author whoe seems preoccupied with himslef rather than the scenes he is attembting to describe. A good alternative to Prozac, although it may have more serious side effects.

This is a good first effort at combining an honest depiction of the west with sardonic wit. Unfortunately, it is sophomoric and banal.

This book was a gift from my wife. I still love her, but I cannot understand the scarcstic approach taken by this author. The book has a nice cover though. As my mother taught me, if you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything. The author is apparently a loner who has been made cynical by his rejection by the civilized world. And it shows all too much.