Customer Reviews

Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions

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The editorial review above faults this anthology for including writers not from or living in the Northwest, and including instead writers from elsewhere writing about the Northwest. I disagree with this criticism. This book is an exposition of place, and is focused on the place, not the writers who live here. If you want to better understand what this place is, where we are and how we got here, this book addresses that perfectly. I got this book because I wanted a better understanding of the region where I was born, grew up, and love so much, and it gave me exactly that.

I absolutely loved this collection. Editor Barcott does a great job introducing each era of Northwest writing covered in this book, then gives an interesting background about each author as a prelude to their excerpted work. I now have an expansive list of books to read from authors I encountered in this anthology!

I appreciate that so many disparate authors and subjects were brought together so eloquently here. From Indian creation stories and early Indian/European encounters to life in Seattle in modern times, it's all here. I think the length is just about right also. Too many books labor their point, whereas this one ends just as you've had your fill of rugged individuals and the tough landscape they occupy. I definitely found myself wishing for another chapter from some of the excerpts (such as "The Second Missouri Compromise"), which is what any good work of art should do--leave 'em wanting more!