Review 133: All The Wild That Remains

All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Part travel autobiography, part biography. The autobiography portion is in search of information and anecdotes about Wallace Stegner or Ed Abbey. I suspect that people who have read most of the books by Stegner and Abbey would get more out of this one than I did. What kept coming up in my mind was, I’ve only read one book by Stegner and it isn’t the most read, nor his most ambitious (Big Rock Candy Mountain). Recently I tried a book by Abbey, and was so disappointed by it, could not get beyond the overt racism and sexism. So this book did have some hurdles for me.

Despite that I enjoyed the book for the most part. I learned about both author’s lives and felt like perhaps I could get beyond some of Abbey’s crassness and read some of his other non-fiction books. The book I was appalled by he wrote furiously as he was dying, which makes me more upset. I would hope people would find peace and love in the end, not more antagonism toward other human beings.

Gessner compares and contracts these two which are somewhat complete opposites, except for their love of preserving the wild. Abbey was a sexist, could hardly stay married (had 5 wives), was a horrible father to most of his children. Then there’s Stegner who was married and loyal for decades, wonderful father. Stegner is quiet and works with legislature to get things preserved, while Abbey is loud and obnoxious and sets the foundation for Earth First! and property destruction in an attempt to stop the real destruction of wilderness.

I enjoyed Gessner’s own journey, meeting up with some people associated with the two authors, and discussing a little of the west and environmentalism. Perhaps the book overall would have worked for me better if I had read more of the Abbey and Stegner.

Read two Gessner books during same time. This book read: (April 22-May 04)
Other book: My Green Manifesto

• 4 stars (April 29-May 07)