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Average Customer Rating:

Metaphors abounds

Customer Rating:

If you wanted to learn anything about why Rick Bass went west, you'll hardly find anything here. Most of the content becomes very repititious, and at about the 100 page mark you have read through most of the content. Bass attempted to organize his book with chapters like the one titled 'Oil', but after writing about oil for maybe two pages he returns to his thick metaphors which actually make his story harder to understand. Half the book is philosophy/metaphor, but meaningless philosophy. For example, he wonders a lot about whether he was destined to find the Yaak, as if somehow the forces of nature brought him there to protect it. Such an argument may sound poignant, something that a yuppy who moves to northern Idaho says, but it doesn't really have a place in a book that's supposed to be serious. His often spiritual reasons detract from sections where he wants to get a point across. Later on he discusses policy which is more intersting and a break from his typical writing. He has made a compromise in his community between everyone, even ATV and snowmobile drivers who destroy tracts of land with their tires or belts. In that respect, the book is useful; learning how to join a small community in a venture is helpful for everybody to know, but I wouldn't buy this book again.

bass at his worst	Customer Rating:
I'll keep this short, Rick Bass is one of my favorite authors, but this book is his worst. I have no Idea why he bothered to write it, but it is a waste of a great talent. I gave up after 60 pages.

Good old Yaak - but same old Yaak

Customer Rating:

I have been a big Rick Bass fan for many years. I enjoy his non-fiction and I revere his efforts to preserve the wilderness areas of his adopted corner of Montana. However, I simply take issue with this book about how misleading the title and liner notes are about its major content. Why I Came West? There is a little about that. And there is some solid thought and writing here. Good writing. But the vast majority of this book is an update (and revision) of his efforts to obtain Wilderness designation for the Yaak since he moved West. It could more correctly be titled Book of Yaak II, or better yet, Book of Yaak Revised. There are large portions of this book that seem to be a letter to his neighbors correcting or updating his true views on Wilderness and logging and even a weak attempt to discourage outsiders from wanting to see the Yaak as a destination, as if he has drawn ire from fellow Yaakians for the notoriety he has brought the area. But his love for the area easily diminishes any intended effect. As a reader, I want a fair chance to choose what I am reading. I couldn't help feel throughout most of this read, that I was erroneously lured into the prospect of some new and different writing by Mr. Bass - but instead was being given the same whine in a different bottle. Having said that, I will still look forward to his new efforts both in regard to conservation as well as writing.