Great Plains [Paperback]

Ian Frazier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2001

National Bestseller

With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull’s cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Frazier, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of Dating Your Mom , here explores the Great Plains at random, seeking the past and embracing the present. According to PW , "This is an engaging blend of travelogue, local color, geography and folklore." Photos. 100,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Extraordinary...One thinks of such American originals as John McPhee,
Wallace Stegner, Edward Hoagland, Peter Matthiessen, and Evan S. Connell.” —The Washington Post Book World

“This is a brillant, funny, and altogether perfect book, soaked in research and then aired out on the open plains to evaporate the excess, leaving this modern masterpiece. It makes me want to get in a truck and drive straight out to North Dakota and look at the prairie.” —Garrison Keillor

“History written with passion and delight... Frazier is a great storyteller.” —Newsweek

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (May 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312278500
• ISBN-13: 978-0312278502
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Travel > United States > Regions > Central

More About the Author

Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains, The Fish's Eye, On the Rez, and Family, as well as Coyote v. Acme and Dating Your Mom, all published by FSG. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly engaging for the armchair Plains historian!, December 12, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Olympia, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Plains (Paperback)

I first read this book in a writing class in college and just recently reread it. If you're at all interested in what really goes on "beyond the plane window" down on the ground in the Great Plains geographical region you will most certainly enjoy this book. What I appreciated most was Frazier's ability to link the often colorful historical past of this region to the modern day present conditions. Pulling us backward and forward in time, Frazier gives us an engaging, humorous, and historically informative review of some of the Great Plains most well remembered events. Fortunately, often Frazier unintentionally shows his biases (always softening them with humor) on certain themes: strip mining, the Herb Clutter "In Cold Blood" murders, the Indian Crazy Horse, the military's placement of ICBMs on the northern plains, and Lawrence Welk. Great Plains is an entertaining and excellent read, especially on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Just read and look down at the ground outside the window! I recommend it wholeheartedly.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating introduction to the Great Plains, March 13, 2000

By 

Mitchell Ayer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Plains (Paperback)

Ian Frazier is a skillful writer of non fiction. I would compare this book to John McPhee's Coming Into the Country. Frazier traveled some 25,000 miles across the Great Plains states that is from the Dakotas to Texas. He has tried (successfully) to distill the essence of the Great Plains in this regrettably short book. We learn where tumbleweed comes from-the steppes of Russia, what it's like to operate a Minuteman silo, how immigrants were enticed to come to the Great Plains. That the railroads wanted Germans but no French or Italians. Financing of agriculture is discussed-no loans west of the 100th Meridian. He writes of the the Dust Bowl and the population declines in 2/3rds of the counties. How an agricultural agent went to the steppes of Russia to get hardy wheat seeds and led to the popularity of pasta. This is not a travel guide. If you want detailed travel information, I suggest the Off the Beaten Path series of the Dakotas, Nebraska. and the other Plains states. The book could have been longer and better organized. For example the author mentions Odessa but does not mention the meteor craters, the million barrel tank, the Moynihan (sp?) sanddunes, the Mojo. He mentions the Black Hills but not pitchfork fondue. If you plan on going through the Plains states, you should read this book.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous, funny, poignant, dazzlingly well written, October 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Plains (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book. I've read it several times and each time it knocks me out. It begins with six sentences in a row that end in exclamation marks and has a scene about a local fashion show that summarizes the lost possibilities of America as well as anything I've read. It tells the story of Indians in the plains and the story of white people and why the author decided never again to cut his hair. And it is a museum of writerly virtues -- Frazier seems incapable of putting together a sentence without an unexpected but perfect swerve in it towards the end.