Review by Booklist Review
The Montana environmentalist (The Ninemile Wolves [1992]) here offers three spare, unrelated stories. "Platte River," the weakest, is about an ex-football player who journeys from Montana to speak at a small college in northern Michigan. It effectively evokes the sadness of a life in which dreams were realized early, and then nothing else happened; it might make a good reading for men's consciousness meetings. "Mahatma Joe," about a Canadian evangelist who is near death, and who manages one last convert in an embittered young woman trying to find herself in a wilderness valley, has a lilting, seductive charm about it, however, and an understated humor. The most appealing by far of these tales is the amusing "Field Events," about two overgrown teenage boys who spend every spare moment discus throwing. They spot an even bigger man, a man so big he partakes of myth, wandering naked in a field, and recruit him to their cause. The gentle giant can hurl a discus far enough to break the Olympic record, but, alas, he's moonstruck over his friends' lonely sister. Bass writes beautifully, but this is such a slender book that readers may feel a bit cheated. ~--John Mort
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The characters in this impressive collection of three novellas are all outsized--in body, and in longing for the sanctuary and protection of love. Water is a unifying factor, a symbol of the free-flowing clarity and strength they aspire to achieve. The tales have an almost magical intensity, born of clear, supple prose animated by stark and startling imagery. In ``Mahatma Joe,'' an obsessed, aging preacher who has tamed the passions of the residents of Grass Valley, Montana, brings a curious salvation to the young woman who tests her physical strength as she comes to share his vision. ``Field Events'' introduces Paul Bunyan-sized A.C., whose muscular power moves him to dance in a field with a cow on his back. His mute need for love leads him to join the Iron family, among whom he learns to throw the discus--and much more. The protagonist of the title story is Harley, an aging former linebacker, whose visit with a former college buddy gives him a glimpse of the limitations of his body and of the elusiveness of human connection. Bass ( The Ninemile Wolves ) is known primarily for his lucid and lyrical writing about nature, and this collection has plenty of that--all three stories take place within a stone's throw of the Canadian border in harsh environments briefly made idyllic by warmer seasons. But what makes this a compelling book are his finely detailed, complex characters, simple men and women crafted with sympathy and understanding. Author tour. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
If one combined a healthy serving of North American tall tales with a generous portion of Norman MacLean's A River Runs Through It , the tantalizing mixture would resemble these three delectable novellas. Within this rich blend of naturalism touched by mystery, the exhilarating landscapes of Montana, upstate New York, and northern Michigan inform the book as fully as the human principals. ``Mahatma Joe'' presents a failed evangelist acting out metaphors in pursuit of salvation: he literally skates on thin ice in the dark while attempting to sow a garden. In ``Field Events,'' a gentle giant, who exercises by lifting cows, energizes a burnt-out school teacher. The title story sends a lovelorn, has-been athlete to face unexpected revelations in the course of a remarkable all-night fishing party. Known for his prize short stories and nature writing ( Oil Notes , Houghton, 1990; Ninemile Wolves , LJ 5/15/92), Bass demonstrates here his mastery of longer fiction. Recommended for all collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/93.-- Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P . L . , Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Three fascinating long stories from a greatly gifted avatar of the outdoors (The Ninemile Wolves, 1992; The Watch, 1989, etc.) The stories cross the mythic with the naturalistic, and are ruggedly male. In ``Mahatma Joe,'' an aging evangelist who's migrated from wild Alaska to an isolated but semicivilized valley in northern Montana accelerates his campaign to win favor with God before he dies; as the warm midwinter chinook blows through the valley, he plants a lush riverside garden for the sake of converts in Africa, and, though he loses his beloved Alaskan common-law wife, who drowns, he finds a new partner in a drifting hippie girl. In the haunting ``Field Events,'' a Glen Falls, New York, family- -mixed of giants and pixies--adopts a mammoth man who's first spotted by two brothers hauling a canoe full of iron objects against a river's fierce current. The brothers train the man to throw a discus farther than anyone's ever thrown it; the mother considers him the reborn soul of her miscarried eldest son; and the oldest sister, a frail, depressive gamine, marries him--teaching him to be her savior and to let himself be saved from the destructive power of his strength. Finally, in ``Platte River,'' an ex-pro football player named Harley, now living in the Montana wilderness with his restless girlfriend Shaw, spends a weekend fishing with an old buddy and two other men in northern Michigan; as fish pull free and one man openly contemplates suicide, Harley learns not to block or tackle when confronted with a problem but to ``let something go''--namely, his freedom-seeking girlfriend. Beautifully written and filled with radiant imagery and a powerful sense of the mysteries of nature--human and otherwise.
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Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
