If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir [Paperback]

John Nichols (Author), William Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2005

A celebration—in words and pictures—of one of the most beautiful areas of the United States: the Taos Valley of northern New Mexico.

This eloquent, moving, and often funny book is his account of exactly how his life has been transformed by daily, intimate contact with this extraordinary landscape—at once hostile and nurturing—and by his growing sense of responsibility toward the land and the people who live there. Nichols writes with wry amusement about the joys and tribulations of living in an adobe farmhouse that is always at the mercy of nature. He is rapturous about the pleasures of trout fishing in mountain streams and graphic about the difficulties of maintaining a primitive, but vital irrigation system. But he is most passionate about his farmer neighbors and thier continuing struggle to prtect a rewarding way of life and a precariously balanced ecological system that are both increasingly threatened by overcrowding and human greed. To complement Nichols's deeply felt text, William Davis has provided sixty-five color photographs that dramatically capture the variety and intensity of this astonishing land—mountain and mesa, forest and desert, river and farmland—in all its seasons and moods. The result is a lyric tribute to one of the last truly wild areas of the United States.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Treadwell Nichols moved to Taos in 1969, he felt "strung out, on edge, going down fast, and scared stiff." Outraged by the Vietnam War, depressed by New York City, uncertain about his own career as a writer (he was, at twenty-nine, the author of two acclaimed novels, The Sterile Cuckoo and The Wizard of Loneliness ), he was returning to a spiritual homeland, where he had spent one memorable summer as a teenager, and where he hoped to create a new life for himself and his family.

William Davis's photographs of the Southwest have been exhibited on many occasions in New Mexico. He has lived in Taos since 1969.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393311597
• ISBN-13: 978-0393311594
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 10.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #643,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, touching, and disturbing book., October 18, 2001

By 

Stephanie Padilla (Santa Cruz, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir (Paperback)

New Mexico, and the Taos area in particular, has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. John Nichols captures this beauty perfectly in his first of the Taos series, "If Mountains Should Die." Accompanied by heart-grabbing photographs, this book describes his first few years in Taos as a transplanted East-Coaster. Nichols not only captures the raw beauty of the land, but also the people that occupy it. Along with this, he describes the disturbing and continous struggle to keep it alive and free from suburbanization. His personal and touching accounts of his own struggle with the place and the people bring it alive in unexpected ways. There is also plenty of respect here, along with a deep anger for what is being done to the land, the people, and the unique way of life found in Taos Valley. As this is a very special place in my heart, I found it easy to cry and laugh along with him.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two passionate lovers of a place, November 20, 2008

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir (Paperback)

John Nichols's short, prescient essays and Bill Davis's photographs constitute a classic memoir of a place. The book describes a small Hispanic and Native American agricultural community forced to modernize by big business and a group of hippies.

Nichols moved to Taos in 1969, after an "eye-opening and life-changing trip" to Guatemala, which gave him a perspective on the disparity of wealth and poverty. He found a similar battle in Taos with Taos farmers fighting against the construction of a dam.

Davis came from Georgia almost 40 years ago; he arrived in Taos on Christmas Eve: "The mystery so captivated my heart and soul that in the years since I have had little cause to leave the village of Taos and its surrounding countryside."

Nichols lived (and still lives) in a three-room adobe, drove an ancient Dodge pickup, and worked "the graveyard shift", writing every night from about 10 pm until dawn. "And I love this wounded valley for precisely the same reasons that I often hate it: It is one of the few places that I have ever been that I have truly taken personally."

Nichols went on to write a trilogy of novels, essential to understand the conflicts between this indigenous society and "progress": The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel, The Magic Journey: A Novel and The Nirvana Blues: A Novel.

Nichols's essays in If Mountains Die deal with the difficulties and joys of living in an adobe building, the joy of trout fishing, and the challenges of maintaining the irrigation system. His most moving passages deal with his neighbors and their efforts to maintain their way of life.

Davis contributed sixty-five color photographs that capture the mountains, mesas, forests, deserts, rivers and farmland in several seasons. People rarely appear in the photographs; the scenery predominates; but the impact of humanity is always in evidence.

Together, Nichols and Davis have created a extraordinary memoir of a wonderful place.

Robert C. Ross 2008