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Ian Frazier

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Great Plains Paperback – May 4, 2001

by Ian Frazier (Author)

4.4 490 ratings

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National Bestseller

Most travelers only fly over the Great Plains--but Ian Frazier, ever the intrepid and wide-eyed wanderer, is not your average traveler. A hilarious and fascinating look at the great middle of our nation.

With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains. A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull's cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde, to the scene of the murders chronicled in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. It is an expedition that reveals the heart of the American West.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

May 4, 2001
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.85 x 8.2 inches
ISBN-10

0312278500
ISBN-13

978-0312278502
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Extraordinary...One thinks of such American originals as John McPhee, Wallace Stegner, Edward Hoagland, Peter Matthiessen, and Evan S. Connell.” ―The Washington Post Book

“This is a brillant, funny, and altogether perfect book, soaked in research and then aired out on the open plains to evaporate the excess, leaving this modern masterpiece. It makes me want to get in a truck and drive straight out to North Dakota and look at the prairie.” ―Garrison Keillor

“History written with passion and delight... Frazier is a great storyteller.” ―Newsweek

About the Author

Ian Frazier is the author of Travels in Siberia, Great Plains, On the Rez, Lamentations of the Father and Coyote V. Acme, among other works, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He graduated from Harvard University. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (May 4, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312278500
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312278502
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.85 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #95,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #207 in Native American History (Books)
- #271 in Travelogues & Travel Essays
- #945 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
4.4 490 ratings

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Ian Frazier

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Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains, The Fish's Eye, On the Rez, and Family, as well as Coyote v. Acme and Dating Your Mom, all published by FSG. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

490 global ratings

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Michael S. McKnight

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

Having lived in SD for over 40 years I can safely say this book captures the Great Plains perfectly. An excellent read.

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

Ian Frazier describes the Great Plains as a tourist might visiting a foreign country, charmed by its “otherness, romanticizing its strangeness. I’ve spent most of my life on or near the Great Plains. Most of the places he writes about are familiar. I must admit, though, that I have driven past many of the museums he stopped to visit, as I assumed they were at best vain attempts to claim that there was something significant or interesting about a mostly boring and unremarkable landscape. I still find other parts of the country to be far more beautiful and filled with many more things of interest, but the vast open spaces of the prairie still tug at my heart as no other place can. Thus, I found his book to be especially interesting as it has enabled me to see the familiar through the eyes of a stranger. I learned much that was new to me (including what was in the museums I have always driven by), and his writing, is captivating.
One quibble: I found it strange that he almost completely overlooks the significance of the railroads to the Great Plains other than a passing remark about coal trains. Long before the development of air travel which made this “flyover country” railroads were an integral part of the development of this area, often determining which settlements succeeded and which failed. Many of the towns of the Great Plains still have a railway station, even if it is no longer in use. And, while only a smattering of passengers still travel my rail across these states, the railways still carry a vast amount of freight. It was strange, in fact, the he made no mention of the Union Pacific Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, the largest rail yard in the world, through which an average of 139 trains per day pass through.

25 people found this helpful

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Josephine Briggs

great plains

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2009

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I liked this book very much. It is complicated, interesting, informative and a good study of the 10 plains state and which part of them contains the actual plains. The book is like a large tapestry with many different elements woven in. There is the geography of the land, the plants, animals, people plus much more. This is also a book of joie d' vivre, love of life, a French impressionist painting of the beauty and joy of being alive,the joy of small incidental occurances too easily forgotten. Ian Frazier also uses stream of conscience as different scenes, places and people flash before his eyes. He then goes back in history to the lifestyle of the Indians before the white men came to the plains and how when they did come how riciculous the red men thought the white mens ways and customs were. Then he comes back to today and what is happening now. So, back and forth, back and forth from history to present. Mr Frazier tells of how the plains were becoming settled and civilized and of the colorful characters who lived and helped shape this area into what it would become. Crazy Horse was a favorite and he also liked George Custer and believed Custer also loved this wide open land, some parts rolling, some like a rumpled bed and other areas as flat as a board which makes heaven and earth seem to come together. I believe Mr Frazier loves this wide open country because he spent two years living here and writing about it and driving back and forth crossing much. But he writes back and forth from past history to present. But the book ends concerning future times and is concerned with nuclear missal sites. Tomorrow land

10 people found this helpful

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Badazz

A Great Story-as Vast as the Plains

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2013

Verified Purchase

The Great Plains, by Ian Frazier is a top notch, travelogue and cultural study. Why exactly should a discriminating reader buy or read a book which describes a part of the country that so many Americans either fly over, or try and get through as fast as possible? In short, Frazier's description of this region of America is worth reading if only for his outstanding use of the English Language. Additionally, the Great Plains is as storied and as colorful a region of the United States as any other.

The book was written in the late 1980s, when President Reagan was busy building up the military and aggressively confronting the Soviet Union. In that conflict, the Great Plains played a central part-namely it was, and remains, the area which the United States Air Force stores its Nuclear Missiles, and houses its fleets of bombers. It was the home turf of Strategic Air Command. Frazier looks at the situation full in the face, he genuinely is concerned about the fate of the world with so many warheads hidden under the sea of grass. Remarking on events current to the books publishing adds to the work, it gives an all important layer of time to the place described.

This book is a delight to read, for those whose roots sink into the region as well as people on the coasts who become curious about what they are flying over. A vast, rich, and fertile story.

5 people found this helpful

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JuicesFlowing

Absorbing and interesting. Didn’t want it to end.!

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

I was born and raised on the Great Plains, and have come to love the very region this book is about. I also love the history. Frazier explores this in interesting and great detail. I was never bored while reading this. It’s not a dry, history essay of the Plains. It’s a road trip travelogue full of historical research, but it’s also something else. Frazier does an amazing job of bringing in the people of the plains that he meets. This book made me want to get in my car and drive everywhere he went. It’s gritty, rugged, and spacious. Not boring, these Great Plains. I guess it depends who you are and where you’re from, but I really, really appreciated Ian Frazier’s writing in this book.

4 people found this helpful

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Matt F

quirky but well written

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

I don’t know what I expected when I bought a book called “Great Plains” but I didn’t expect what I got. Frazier weaves together mostly interesting personal stories about his travels through the plains area with some historical context. Ultimately this is good writing and is entertaining but it’s not much more than that.

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Top reviews from other countries

F. J. Court

Bill Bryson on speed!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2012

Verified Purchase

Good reportage, probably not in depth enough and a bit fractured in places as his journey does not follow an established pattern. Not laugh out loud, but found myself smiling quite a lot. Unbiased about the native Indian which a lot of US books are not, they seem to thrive on matter of fact racism.
It is a quick read, and gives a good insight into US culture of cars, driving and their paranoia in the cold war.

One person found this helpful

George

Three Stars

Reviewed in Canada on February 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

A good read but Frazier is no Least Heat Moon.

Roger Taylor

Dull.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2021

Verified Purchase