The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley RobinsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I keep talking about this book with people I know who like to hike or enjoy the mountains. There's a lot of surprises in the book, such as the way it's organized, but way more than that. Anyway, I should gather more thoughts and words and put them here....be back momentarily.
--------------------------further thoughts:
What a book! It’s long, probably too long (sorry, so are my thoughts here), but it does cover a wide variety of topics. It is partly autobiographical, with a strong focus on Robinson’s life hiking and spending time in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range with leaving out most of his childhood, except brief mentions of how athletic he was, and continued to be during college. It was in college when one of his good friends took him and several other friends on an experience that would transform their lives. They went on a backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness area of the Sierras. He fell in love.
Other parts of this book include a history of people, such as the beginning of the Sierra Club, John Muir (of course) and a few other historic events and people. He talks about geography a bit, and something he calls psychogeology.
There’s quite about the names of things in these mountains, how there are some bad names and some good ones, as well as many suggestions for new names. I have to agree with his statement, why does one generation (mostly white men) get to name everything, and have it never change?
Robinson talks about routes and areas, of course, and this does take up a good portion of the book. The backpacking and camping experiences they had, with some of the mishaps that happened, the exciting times.
There does seem to be some pieces missing, such as not much talked about the Pacific Crest Trail, and not much about Yosemite, and that’s likely because he avoids these places, also Mammoth. The places that people already know about and go to he avoids, so it becomes understandable that he doesn’t discuss that.
Robinson includes a significant amount about the Swiss Alps, as he and his wife lived in Switzerland for a couple of years. It feels out of place, but if you look at the book as an autobiography it becomes understandable, and it does serve as a comparison to the Sierras.
I found that Robinson is quite opinioned about the way to do backpacking. It works for him, but definitely won’t work for everyone. Not taking established trails, well is that good advice? Wouldn’t that end up creating some major issues if that’s what everyone did, go off-trail?
When I first started reading the book it created such a strong longing in me to go to the Sierras, to go hiking. While I could possibly do that, it won’t be anytime in the near future. It was tempting to stop reading until I could relieve that desire, but I continued on with the book, pushing past that desire. Is this one of Robinson’s goals? Not sure but it did feel often he was writing to the younger people, collage age like those he teaches.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Robinson as well, and he does a wonderful job with that. In fact he was the best choice as his enthusiasm comes through even more so. But I missed out in seeing all the photos that are included in the print book. I did manage to get hold of a copy, but late in my reading, and really it’s better to view the photos while reading.
Post note: despite this long review I didn't mention how this book was written by an author of many science fiction books, several of which I have read. There is a series of three books that I really enjoyed, read a couple of them twice. Hopefully I can get back here and link to those books I've read of his.
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