| Ten Tough Trips is William
W. Bevis's literary journey through the works of ten of the West's most
prominent authors, including A. B. Guthrie, Jr., D'Arcy McNickle, James
Welch, Richard Hugo, Ivan Doig, and Norman Maclean.
In a series of lucid and witty essays
originally assembled to complement the award-winning book, The
Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, Bevis deflates European
myths
of escape to a natural West beyond civilization and shows how Montana
has
developed its own voice, true to the complications and austerities of a
splendid land. His chapters on Native American writers have been
especially
well received. Through sensitive and discerning analysis, Bevis shows
how
love of the land can become more enduring and haunting even as the
myths
are stripped away, and in a new afterword, he addresses the emergence
of
important women writers from 1990 to the present. Of particular note is
his consideration of Mary Clearman Blew and her extraordinary memoir, All
But the Waltz, which Bevis believes to be a pioneering work
reflective
of the postmodern West. .
|
Ten Tough Trips
Montana Writers and
the West
by William W. Bevis
University of Oklahoma
Press, 2004.
Order
a copy.
|
