Customer Reviews

Live! From Death Valley: Dispatches from America's Low Point

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really liked this book. It is about Death Valley and about some of the people who have lived and/or traveled through it. Or I should say, survived it. The author also shares his experiences with Death Valley. Very interesting, and well-written. It is the best book I have ever read about Death Valley.

Soennichsen has written a very entertaining book that captures the natural history and lore or Death Valley. A perfect balance of wry and reverent.

Ok, so... I'm acquainted with this author (online only) because one of his other interests is one I share, and we hang out on the same message board. So when the book came out, I came here to Amazon and bought a copy, just to support John, even though I had NO interest at all in Death Valley.

Well, I started reading it after having it in my "to read" pile for a couple of months, and must say I am VERY pleasantly surprised. John has a great writing style - very accessible, and easy to read. I also like the way you have the past interspersed with the present in this volume. I learned so very much from this book, and have actually told my husband that I'd like to visit Death Valley at some point. (Though, I must admit, I'm one of those city wimps who would want air conditioning & cold water at all times. *grin*)

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone - whether they do or do not currnetly have any interest in Death Valley. It will suck you in and make you long to see this lowest point in America. I am so very pleased that I enjoyed it :) - I honestly thought before I cracked the book open that I'd read 20 or 30 pages then put it away due to a lack of interest.

John Soennichsen and I share what most people would consider an unnatural love - the love of Death Valley in California. Soennichsen shares his love in the short, but sweet Live! From Death Valley. Live! is [at least] three interwoven stories - the natural history of Death Valley, Soennichsen's personal history with Death Valley, and the story of William Lewis Manly and his ill-fated band of pioneers. Anyone reading this book should at bare minimum go away intrigued and the most curious readers will want to plan that Death Valley trip as soon as possible.

I throughly enjoyed this book about Death Valley and the author's experiences there. My family used to visit Death Valley regularly on our way to other destinations during our vacations. This book brought back numerous fond memories of my childhood thinking about the mysteries and dangers of the Valley to the pioneers that dared to brave that fantastic wilderness. I was both informed and entertained while reading this wonderful book. If you are even the slight bit curious about Death Valley and the people who explored it, read this book. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the discoveries on each page.

Soennichsen attempts to capture "my reverence for Death Valley's geology, history, and harsh environment. It is a reverence conceived in naiveté, nourished through repeated exploration, and polished with the passage of time. It is the story of how this region helped construct my views on the environment, tourism, solitude, and religion, among other topics. It is part memoir and part adventure tale; part history and part coming-of-age story." (xiii) He compares the Valley to a harsh mistress whom he still loves. One who "did not seek to hide its appearance with vegetative cosmetics, did not adorn itself in soft and sumptuous outer garments or employ subtly filtered lighting or cool desert breezes the tempt my senses." (xii) Not all the narrative, wisely, emerges from such extended metaphors. These are deployed sparingly, for maximum effect.

He knows the power of the fanciful placenames we use to try to account for Death Valley's weird formations. Our attempt to play Adam shows both our bold confidence that we can control nature, and our failure to understand the ineffable forces that outlast us. Our naming reveals their power over us far beyond what words can convey. Nevertheless, he tries in a variety of registers to explain some of the fascination that this territory's provoked in him and within a few hardy, or deluded, people over the past century and a half.

William Lewis Manly's tale-- as retold skillfully by Soennichsen-- of his fellow pioneers who took what would become a fatal short cut for some in their party in 1949-50 (ironically a much wetter winter and more forgiving climate than usual) here's interspersed with chapters on the geology and dessication, the mining and pioneer days, the unpredictable weather, the flora and fauna, the crazy folks, The Devil's Racetrack mystery of gliding boulders, more crazy folks, his earlier forays into danger, burros, and what can be seen off the main roads that circle the National Park. Unfailingly, he gives enough insight into his own experiences without getting bogged down in superfluous details from the rest of his life.

He selects only what's appropriate to illuminate the Valley, from his point of view, and supplements it sparingly but deftly with the records from history and fellow sojourners. I sensed that much more could have been told about the mining camps in particular, but other guides and academic works did this. The context, nonetheless, for such efforts as the 20-Mule Borax Mule Team that in turn spawned the now-nearly forgotten (he makes an aside to it) "Death Valley Days" show by Ronald Reagan before he entered 60's politics remained undernourished. Yet, we can find out more in longer, or less accessible, works. He appends a short list of sources selected, but I would have liked much more annotation or specific suggestions for other media. (There's a URL given on the dust jacket with www. plus the main title of his book as a single word plus dot-com; I tried it today and found a dead link, however.)

This book earns five stars for its clear prose, careful composition, and thoughtful analysis of this infamous expanse. Although the cover and titular typeface make it at first look less than the well-informed investigation that the contents reveal, and the lack of a usable map or representative photos does detract unfortunately from my perfect rating overall, this book's recommended. The photos tended to be rather indistinct, as if random snaps, and did not depict the splendor or strangeness of the sights his words witness.

I admit a bit of confusion. He cites verbatim the dangers of desiccation from Richard Lingenfelter's standard history, while he contradicts what Lingenfelter asserts on the previous page of "Death Valley & the Amargosa": that the Shoshone term "Tomesha" did not mean what Soennichsen in his own introduction's first sentence asserts: "Ground on Fire." (xi; cf. Lingenfelter 1986: 11-13--also reviewed by me.) Lingenfelter traces this false "Paiute" etymology to a 1907 "one-liner" from a geologist. Lingenfelter gives "Coyote Rock" as the probable Shoshone derivation from what was once the largest Indian village there. Thus, as both authors agree, the mythic and the illusive certainly reign over the landscape.

Speaking of placenames, Soennichsen's map, while it reminded me of an affectionate sketch one might take away from an insider who shares his own points of interest on a napkin with you after a long conversation in a local bar near the Valley, on paper's too cramped and idiosyncratic to serve the curious reader wishing for more precision and an easier comprehension of the many sites referred to in the text.

Yet, these remain minor faults compared with the book's strengths. I admired Soennichsen's style, both as a thinker and a chronicler of his beloved realm. For roughly four decades, as he sums up his book's scope, he's been roaming when he could these quiet lands, preparing to tell the tales in this brief, lively, but serious record of what lurks beyond the myths of this often forbidding, yet coyly inviting, place.

He's edited this efficiently told collection of interrelated essays down, I estimate, from a larger work, and the discipline in crafting his reflections shows in the meditative, yet never dull, pace. With touches of self-deprecation, memories of lots of beer in coolers, and the right amount of anecdotes, he tells entertaining yet educational stories. As with Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire," this updates the ancient wonder of the American desert for our times; Soennichsen has the advantage of moving further west than Abbey into what still seems to me a Mojave that has lacked the attention from nature writers that it deserves and earns in the hands of such earlier efforts as the late Colin Fletcher's "A Thousand-Mile Summer."

Soennichsen's final chapter accomplishes this feat of verbal reclamation best. Without revealing why I think his night in Surprise Canyon proved so apt a name for such an encounter as the one he relates, he also cocks a sober eye towards our hubris and chides our refusal-- in a wilderness that often punishes the foolhardy visitor-- to respect the limits that such a desert represents to all of us who drag motorhomes and generators out there into the silence. We wish to see Mother Nature from the comforts of only our frigid automobile window, or perhaps after tearing it up under our 4WD's spattered windscreen. Without getting sanctimonious or hypocritical, he marvels at relentless human endeavor to tame such an awesome place. Also, he elicits respect for the hidden places that should not be domesticated.

I did not expect the penultimate pages of this little book to end with a chapter citing Sartre, but it's again testimony to Soennichsen's skill that he can integrate a profound observation into his own reflections without it coming off as showing off. At Chris Wicht's Panamint camp, he finds intimations that connect with Wordsworth's "inward eye which is the bliss of solitude." (qtd. 168) Our existential solitude, as he learns one midnight, takes us into our minds as the most mysterious of all our landscapes, where even Death Valley may look tamer by psychic comparison.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Soennichsen interwove the historical stories from the past and the factual geographical information with his personal experiences in Death Valley. I liked this book so much that I bought it for my parents.

BUY THIS BOOK!! Recommended by a relative, I had preconcieved ideas and little interest in Death Valley, but started reading it anyway. What a great surprise awaited me within just a few pages! I was transported back and forth between the past and the present, gaining a reverent respect for my ancestors who dared to take this trek through the valley's harsh conditions and then finding myself in awe of the fascinating workings of nature to sustain life and even beauty in such a place.

Reading "Live!From Death Valley: Dispatches from America's Low Point" introduced me to diverse and interesting characters from both long ago and not so long ago, pulled me into mystery and danger, brought me knowledge of botany, wildlife and geology I had never realized before and along the way came many laugh out loud moments that made me look around for someone, anyone, to share them with!!

John Soennichsen's love and expertise of Death Valley shines through and has made me re-think my position that vacations should only be taken on tropical beach's! Wonderful reading!!

Live! From Death Valley is filled with humor, suspense and deep appreciation for an under-appreciated place. John Soennichsen takes us back in time to his first encounters with Death Valley on a childhood vacation, and further back to follow a band of pioneers, a tale that is offered in installments throughout the book. His words paint vivid pictures of this strange location, and his later chapters are quite funny and moving as he spends some time in Death Valley as an adult.

This is a book that outdoorsy folks will surely enjoy, but it's not exclusive only to them. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure, American history and exploration.