Customer Reviews

Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My interest was piqued by Jack Turner's "Abstract Wild" which stands alone as the most intense and vital book written on the experience of wildness. From Turner's comments I ventured to buy a copy of Peacock's book "Grizzly Years" even after having read some of the negative comments I found in the reviews given. There is some truth to these comments but they are far outweiged by honesty and boldness of the experiences of Doug Peacock throughout his `Grizzly Years' which of course are not simply the years Peacock spent studying and living near Grizzlies but rather the years of his own transformation from out of the nightmare that was the Vietnam War. I don't think it is an accident that as one proceeds through the book, which is interspersed with Vietnam war experiences, these experiences no longer command the full attention of Peacock as his healing takes place. More and more he assumes the life of a person living in the moment and can pass by the old nightmares for the realness of his life now. No doubt writing this book itself was a part of his cleaning out process and the leaving behind of past lives because they are no longer necessary. Rather than being excerpts to attract or hold the attention they are an integral part of the story, first the very real and immensly powerful experience of combat and the ever present horror of suffering which is always there confronting him, making his life moments which are full of life or death and nothing in between. Peacock came back no longer interested in anything except moment which involved life and death situations and the Grizzly offered just such an opportunity, being unpredictable, dangerous and fully capable of killing any human being, but choosing not to, the bears formed the backbone of his life for many years until gradually he found not only fear and danger and the vitality of life but also the beauty seemingly hidden in each moment no matter how perilous. Slowly Peacock finds his way back to earth so to speak and yet greatly transformed and his meeting Lisa, his wife to be, helped in the process.

Peacock talks of bears as they truly are, far from the attention seeking, sensationalistic presentations of some so called nature programs which concentrate on the alienation of people from nature rather than allowing for the linkage that can take place as the human being realises he is part of the whole, that is, part not a piece of. Peacock's honesty and forthrightness is impressive, Terry Tempest Williams knows what she is talking about when she says the book does not lie.

Unlike some who attempt to make the animal into some sort of cute creature to be oggled at and petted Peacock never forgets the bears are other and yet not altogether that different, he gives them the freedom to be themselves not only by being as inconspicuous as he can but also in his own mind.

There are few like him anymore.

After reading so much of Edward Abby, I discovered this book through a friend and after two years, I still thank him for telling me about The Grizzly Years. Doug Peacock's writing was not only captivating and inspiring, it was also picturesque. Mr. Peacock, I know nothing about you really, but should you ever read this be happy to know that there are a lot of river guides, wildlife biologists, and mountain guides working in the wilderness in central Idaho that have seen Grizzly and have read your book and appreciate you, your books, the bears, and your attitude. Thank you!

I met Doug Peacock when he was a guest speaker at the Telluride Colorado Mushroom festival. This may seem like an odd venue for an author whose subject is grizzly bears, but when you have heard his stories of survival in the wilderness, part of which involved wild mushrooms, it no longer seems so bizarre. Peacock's dedication to knowing the grizzly is all-encompassing, and it is plain that without an extensive understanding of the natural world he would not have been able to get as close to his subject as he did. He is comparable to Jane Goodall and her relationship to chimpanzees, though the nature of the grizzly does somewhat preclude the intimacy Goodall had with chimps. Peacock got as close to grizzlys as a human can without changing places in the food chain, and just barely at that. This man carries an aura of intensity unlike any I've ever encountered. He knows whereof he speaks, at a level so much deeper than most people will ever encounter that it is impossible to ignore him. He is driven from such a fundamental level that it is obvious that he has no agenda other than understanding. Read and learn.

Rather than heap more deserved praise upon Peacock's searingly personal account of his experiences with North America's largest carnivore, I thought it more useful to offer a suggestion for those people wanting more. Rick Bass' _The Lost Grizzlies_ is as close to a sequel as one is likely to find, even featuring Peacock himself in the narrative. (Ed Abbey's truck shows up too!)

This is an outstanding book written by a man who is extraordinarily comfortable in his own skin, yet extraordinarily uncomfortable in modern society.

Peacock is a man who can write lyrically and genuinely about the wilderness, who can stand tall while staring a grizzly in the eyes, and yet who can't attend a party, or walk through a city, or even meet an innocuous stranger who has expressed an interest in chatting with him.

I've read a few other books by people who share Peacock's gruff no-compromise attitude when it comes to environmental protection, and have been really bothered by the sense that they seem to have formed a "we understand nature and you don't" club that excludes most of the environmental movement. Authors Gary Ferguson and Rick Bass (who spent some wilderness time with Peacock) have managed to make this model of environmental conservation seem childish and churlish. But Peacock, who is basically writing the same argument, gives this idea wings on which we soar.

Peacock is brutally honest about himself, and about how his war experiences in Vietnam shattered his soul and left him thrashing about the country in a state of spiritual agony. When he relates a story about becoming frustrated with a payphone operator, and then taking out a shotgun and blowing the telephone to bits, we know that he's not billing himself as a healthy individual.

This honesty lets us see the genuine love that Peacock has for nature in general and grizzly bears in particular. He is well-versed in the scientific side of environmental preservation, and gives us plenty to chew on as far as the good and bad of the institutions that are involved with grizzly bear issues. But his most compelling, unique contributions come when he is alone in the wild, stalking grizzly bears carrying nothing but photography equipment and a knife, with which he is prepared to defend himself to the death.

This is a great book for the environmental movement, and deserves a unique place in that broad and cluttered field. You should definitely read this book if you're an environmentalist. More importantly, you should give it to someone who is not an environmentalist, even someone who is against environmentalism.

Peacock has a way of framing the issues in a way that even a republican will love and understand. His individualistic approach and character are the antithesis of the characterization of environmentalists that the right has been pushing for the last forty years.

Of all the characters created by Edward Abbey none interested me more than the Green Beret turned eco warrior George Hayduke. So it was a great surpise to find this book by the man who inspired the fictional charater. In this book Doug Peacock returns home from two tours in Vietnam as a SF medic. He immediatly buys a used jeep, lots of beer, and sets off into the American wilderness to get a grip on all that happened to him. As Peacock goes deeper into the wilderness he is also drawn back to Vietnam. The book has serveral flash backs to his days fighting with the Vietnamese hill people, the Montangards, that are as harrowing as you would find in any VN war book. Soon Peacock discovers the phight of the grizzly bear, a symbol of wild America barely hanging on. Peacock supports himself with low paying government jobs such as fire lookout and wilderness ranger or rural mailman, but his real purpose in life is to trek after the grizzly and attempt to protect their existence. Peacock finds a parallel between the Vietnam hill people and the embattled grizzly. This book will be read by many enviornmetalist who would never think of reading a Vietnam war book, but will find themselves doing just that. hopefully they will gain respect for veterans as they learn about our vanishing wilderness.

I came across this book after hiking in Glacier NP and seeing a griz, and stopping in Cody Wy and hearing about a griz sighting there. Other reviews describing this gem are accurate, but I have to say that Peacock is a man whose contribution to grizzly awareness will not be surpassed. I have read this several times, along with Ghost Grizzlies, by Petersen; Lost Grizzlies, by Rick Bass(possibly the best outdoor writer since Thoreau); and The Abstract Wild, by Turner. Each of these is important and all of them are must reads.No one will ever come close to duplicating the type of life Peacock has led; this tells of an odyssey that is heroic.We just don't get to know people like him, because he hasn't got time for us.Too bad he hasn't written more. I would give this 10 stars if I could.........

Beautifully written literature that tells the tale of how grizzly bears saved the soul of a man who lost it during the Vietnam war. Peacock's message is that humility is the foundation of humanity, and grizzly bears are the one creature in North America that can still give us humility. We have the technology to turn Glacier National Park into a shopping mall; saving grizzly bears is an act of grace that will save our souls and our humanity.

Doug Peacock drew me into his world with grace. He describes a female Grizzly protecting her cubs from the onslaught of a male rogue Grizzly where just before her neck will be broken by his bite she turns her head away and the rogue stops his attack and walks away. The author picks up on this and uses it to calm another Grizzly in his path. What stories!! Along with the adventure the author is honest enough to show his demons and I ache when it's obvious that he doesn't know how to continue in a relationship with his loved one. Read this book uniterrupted

Grizzly Years is easily one of the best "nature" books written in recent years. It is a great story of a man, like so many, soured by his service in the war in Vietnam. Though I did not read this book for its war aspect, Mr. Peacock does a great job blending it with the nature part of the book. It is very apparent how much these bears mean to Doug, and his fight to protect them is nothing short of courageous. Grizzly Years is a great nature book with human aspects thrown in, much like Lynn Schooler's The Blue Bear. I recently had the privaledge of meeting and listening to Doug, and it was one of the pleasures of my life to shake hands with a man I admire so much. I recommend this book to any lover of the natural world. Doug Peacock will change your perspective on the natural world, like so few can.