The Meadow (Paperback)

by James Galvin (Author) "The real world goes like this: The Neversummer Mountains like a jumble of broken glass..." (more)
Key Phrases: claim shack, top logs, Sheep Creek, Boulder Ridge, Fort Collins (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
These ragged sketches of ranch life along the Wyoming-Colorado border depict Galvin's neighbors--hardscrabble folk--in wry, stoic stories of skill, survival and loss that flash back and forth across 100 years of the high meadow's history. The author's ( Imaginary Timber ) style of lyrical reserve is sufficient to preserve Lyle, Ray, Clara and Appleton in prose amber, but he is too respectful of Lyle to press him on why his sister Clara left the ranch and blew her brains out. The prose soars only in descriptions of weather in the meadow, of Lyle's ax work and Ray's machinery. Still, there is spare beauty here, and readers of Richard Ford, Jim Harrison and Rick Bass will feel at home in Galvin's country.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA-- A true story that reads like a novel, its focal point being a piece of land in the Neversummer Mountains on the Colorado-Wyoming border. In a series of vivid vignett e s and short sketches, Gavin records the 100-year history of the meadow and the few people who lived and died there. His description of every facet of life there, its seasons, the weather, the wildlife, is so evocative that readers can easily understand why its inhabitants care so much about it. This fine piece of regional writing will recall the land and people of the American West to anyone who has been there, and introduce them to those who have not. It is a book that would grace any collection. --Pamela B. Rearden, Centerville Regonial Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (April 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805027033
• ISBN-13: 978-0805027037
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #194,823 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of harsh extremities and stark beauty, February 14, 2003

By	Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a book to savor. Its chapters fall somewhere between vignettes and prose poems, and reading the book is like leafing through an album of old photographs. The storyline is made up of the threads of connections to be made between each of the word-pictures. The book itself seems to be neither fiction nor nonfiction. Galvin refers to himself and his family in some of the chapters, but the person at the center of the book is a neighbor, Lyle Van Waning, who has spent most of his life living near the meadow of the book's title, in the high elevations between Laramie, Wyoming, and Ft. Collins, Colorado.

By today's standards of urban comforts and conveniences (many of which have found their way into lives of people who live far from the city), Lyle lives a kind of pioneer existence, isolated much of the year by deep snow, living by his skills as a carpenter and builder, and the proceeds of hay harvested from his meadow, and spending the time when he can do neither of these in his shop making machinery parts, carved wooden boxes, firearms, and whatever else captures his fascination. He is an immensely private and self-sufficient man, who never marries and seems to hold in his heart the strongest connection with a dead sister who committed suicide. (A painting by Clara Van Waning appears on the cover of the book.) Galvin captures in Lyle the kind of fiercely independent spirit that made survivors of those who first settled and thrived in the American wilderness.

There are other men and women associated with the meadow. And their stories are also told, including App Worster and his son Ray, whose family owns the meadow before the Van Wanings, and who lose it during the Depression. We also learn something of a neighboring rancher Frank Lilley, who is dying of cancer, and whose family continues to keep his ranch going. There's also Ferris, who tries the frontier patience of his neighbors to the breaking point by dumping truckloads of old appliances on his property and denuding his small pasture with over-grazing.

"The Meadow" is told with wonderful precision, a photographic attention to details, and a deep feeling for a kind of life that survives in spite of isolation and often hostile elements. While Galvin does not romanticize the lives of his characters, he does celebrate them. There's a deep attachment in this book to the region that is his home, the landscape and changing seasons, and the people who have put down roots there. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the West and the lives of those who have adapted to its harsh extremities and cherished its stark beauty. As a companion, I would recommend Mark Spragg's "Where Rivers Change Direction," an account of growing up in northwest Wyoming.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wore this book out., November 3, 1999

By A Customer

I read The Meadow. Read it again. Skipped to some of my favorite sections. Read them. Read the whole thing over again. Loaned it to my mother. She read it. Handed it to my father. He read it. My mother took it to her book club. Four members of the book club read it. I took it to work. Three coworkers read it. The book finally fell apart. So I bought a new copy. The images of life on the Meadow will undoubtedly stay with me for ages.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful picture of what the land means to us., October 27, 1999

By	Sara Neyer (Northeast Wyoming) - See all my reviews

Galvin uses a kind of stream of consciousness, though instead of being inside a character's mind, the reader is tied to the land. Once the structure becomes apparent, one follows the author's meanderings back and forth through the history and people who've lived on or passed through the meadow. Using powerful imagery and compelling people, Galvin shows how we in the West feel about our area. A sense of place is the focal point for many of our lives. Those who can live "just anywhere there's a job" won't understand, but for those who identify with the land in the West , it's an unforgettable work.