River of Traps: A New Mexico Mountain Life [Paperback]

William deBuys (Author), Alex Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2007

New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo mountains are a place where two cultures — Hispanic and Anglo — meet. They're also the place where three men meet: William deBuys, a young writer; Alex Harris, a young photographer; and Jacobo Romero, an old farmer. When Harris and deBuys move to New Mexico in the 1970s, Romero is the neighbor who befriends them and becomes their teacher. With the tools of simple labor — shovel and axe, irony and humor — he shows them how to survive, even flourish, in their isolated village. A remarkable look at modern life in the mountains, River of Traps also magically evokes the now-vanished world in which Romero tended flocks on frontier ranges and absorbed the values of a society untouched by cash or Anglo America. His memories and wisdom, shared without sentimentality, permeate this absorbing story of three men and the place that forever shaped their lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A beautiful tribute to a man and his work. . . . a memorial of grave and impressive dignity."

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Trinity University Press (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595340351
• ISBN-13: 978-1595340351
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William deBuys's books include River of Traps (reissued in 2008), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1991. An excerpt from The Walk, which is set in the same mountain valley as River of Traps, won a 2008 Pushcart Prize. He was a 2008-2009 Guggenheim Fellow and spent his fellowship year working on "A Great Aridness: Climate Change in the North American Southwest." Long active in environmental matters in the Southwest, deBuys was the founding chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust (2001-2004), which manages the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico. Recent writing projects have taken him as far afield as Borneo and Lao PDR. He lives on a small farm in El Valle, New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful blend of imagery and interpersonal relationships., October 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: River of Traps: A Village Life (Paperback)

River of Traps is not your typical conservation book. This is a drama, provided to the reader in subtle, sweeping prose and powerful photography by the co-authors.

This book is about transitions: young adults, coming of age in world still not comfortable with the overwhelming changes wrought by the turbulent 60s; the politics of water in the southwest; and the transition of a wizened native seer who knows he only has so much time left to impart the wisdom he has gained from his life in the native land he loves.

Never overwritten, but requiring a fair amount of patience, I highly recommend this non-fiction account of three young adults coming into their own, in a new world, only partly of their making.

Four and a half stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A deserving Pulitzer finalist and a NYTimes Notable Book, January 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: River of Traps: A Village Life (Paperback)

This is a fluid and absorbing book. Each chapter/vignette builds carefully upon the preceding one. The author's knowledge of the Southwest and its intertwined cultures and his affection for the land and his friends makes this a powerful read. Anyone interested in the Southwest, biography and/or photography should read this. It's wonderful!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An honest story of an unusual friendship, words & pictures, July 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: River of Traps: A Village Life (Paperback)

DuBuys' and Harris' friendship with Jacobo Romero was an education for their minds and spirits and they share what they learned in this elegant volume. New Mexicans are hard to write about, because they use language more directly, to a different purpose, than most other Americans. It's difficult to tell a New Mexican's story, because it's hard to use a New Mexican's language. DuBuys has stood in a neutral place to see himself, his friend Alex Harris, their women, and his friend Jacobo Romero, his wife, and others, and to tell a story that is from the heart without being romanticized, that shares what he learned with striking generosity. The pictures are beautiful--the landscape of New Mexican people is even more stirring than the landscape of New Mexican land.