Customer Reviews

The Nearby Faraway: A Personal Journey Through the Heart of the West

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This book is a collection of essays, some may be familiar to the readers of Backpacker magazine. Petersen writes about places in the West and the people that love those places. Many of the essays read like travelogues, for better or worse. Some of his essays bring you right next to the campfire, sipping whiskey at night or strong coffee in the morning, sleeping under the stars awash in desert incense. Perfection.

Other essays weren't as moving (I'm thinking of the pacific northwest essays) and read rather flat. Another gripe: Peculiar analogies pop up in every second essay or two, e.g., elk bugling being described as the equivalent to "Yo momma, sucker!", a feeding hawk is termed a "feathered dracula", an adobe doorpost is as thick as a bodybuilders bicep, and finally, views are sometimes described as "million dollar" or "billion buck" rather than *really* described.

Still, this book should be read by those who like to read about outdoor activity, especially those with an interest in the west. Loads of interesting anecdotes about Ed Abby and crew. Excellent ranting versus development and threats to the environment.

A collection of essays - part nature writing, part travelogue. While the intent of the writer is admirable, you can shelve this collection with other "friends of Ed"; that is Ed Abbey, the master of this genre. Name dropping appears to be the focus of many of the essays.
As far as the travel essays, this area has been covered better by others, though the essay on the relatively unknown Owyhee country was well done.
Another note of irritation is Peterson's continuous railing of "urban refugees" sticking "a dagger in the heart of the wilderness". Yes, we would all love to be the only ones hiking up our favorite trail or to have a lonesome cabin at the end of a dirt road, but Peterson doesn't seem interested in any sharing of the wilderness.