Customer Reviews

In the Loyal Mountains

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

 

 

As a lover of Rick Bass' nonfiction, I sometimes find myself a little disappointed with his approach to fiction. In some of these stories, the metaphors and symbols Bass attempts to draw are lost on me--either too bizarre or too obscure or too complex. But there are some truly beautiful moments here, particularly in the stories "Antlers" and "Fires." Bass is most successful when his stories are deeply rooted in a place he knows well, and when his plot lines are relatively simple. Both stories mentioned above deal centrally with human relationships: fear and longing. Set in a carefully wrought landscape (in the case of these two stories, northwest Montana), the people and places come alive in a way than few other writers (except maybe Wendell Berry) can emulate. I do recommend this book, but I would more enthusiastically recommend some of Bass' nonfiction, especially "Winter," "The Lost Grizzlies," and "The Book of Yaak." Also, his book of short stories, "Platte River," has some lovely moments. Keep writing, Rick!

10 great short stories that illuminate the breadth at which Bass can write. The different subject matter compliments Bass's other works nicely. If you are a first time reader of Bass, start with Winter: Notes from Montana and then grab this one as a follow up.

I rather liked this book as it has a slow flowing feel to it. On the surface all the stories have a slow moving rhythm to them that does not appear to have much meaning but if you look beyond there is a lot to see.

A man who has lived on the side of a mountain, without electricity, can write this. I know because I have done this, and known these men. I know also because the words of a human to not escape me rapidly; they hold long, they resist my temptation to decipher them, they are just. Rick Bass' collection is profound in it's robust depiction of landscape, and emotion. What I am talking about here is the landscapes and emotions of a range of mountains, inland lakes, deep-skies, and, the people who come to live around this. There is not a word ill-spent, not a moment of observant hesitation. The book is round as a planet, a place made whole by its presence in the lap of the reader, calmly and steadfastly apart of the tales in this book as if they experiences already had.

I praise and will continue to praise Rick's work of mountain and cold-stream. His thing is truly a fossil we should keep on our shelves, revisiting with a renewed clarity each time. Bass' movement is remarkably similar to the white-noise of a waterscape, a small fall, a large fall; winter's hearkening of bears out into the open. It is a glistening verbal representation of nature's big reality: food, wind, snow, bear, mountain.

Not every story is going to connect at one particular time and place, but this collection is about as good as such things get. Very good writer*. I need to try one of his novels.

The truly orgasmic experience of reading Rick Bass' book has made me rethink my initial take on Cold Mountain - hailed by Mr. Bass himself as the book to end all need to read other books... Bass' work has made me reshape my look at the cosmos and step back in awe. Even the manor in which the book is typeset creates a longing in my soul for an existence in which reading this book provides my sole physical sustenance. I may be too bold in saying that all books be burned save this and perhaps Cold Mountain to keep us all from wasting our time pondering anything else.

This collection of short stories does not rise to the level of the recent work of Mr. Bass as seen in the New Yorker. Starting slowly and awkwardly, the stories merit and skill increase till the final stories which show great promise. Future work by Mr. Bass will be sought out, but these stories can be skipped unless you're interested in the author's development as a writer of short fiction.