The son of a pacifist and conscientious objector, Bryce Andrews moved from Seattle to Montana to tend livestock and the land as a cowboy. For a decade, he was happy. But when Andrews inherited his grandfather's Smith & Wesson revolver, he felt the weight of the violence braided into his chosen life. Andrews chronicles his journey to forge a new path for himself, and to reshape one handgun into a tool for good work.
... almost exhaustingly sincere ... I wondered why it seems so particular with Bryce Andrews, why he’s so eager to embrace the guilt of past generations. He says only that 'the fact that my tragedies were commonplace did not soothe me' ... He overhears mourners at a Salish funeral, honoring the dead with a song that 'made me want to cry, shout and beg for forgiveness.' Hardhearted wretch that I am, I found all this a bit self-indulgent ... Andrews has written books about grizzly bears and the hard realities and satisfactions of ranch work. His sincerity is necessary to a story like Holding Fire, but it is not sufficient in itself. What might this book have been if it had brought to bear other qualities — humor, for example, or surprising, quirky characters or themes — to lift his tragedies to a higher level?
Holding Fire: A Reckoning With the American West will be very appealing to a particular audience. [Andrews] can write beautifully ... In a perverse but not uncommon way, it flatters the vanity of Andrews and those of like mind to feel responsible for great evil in the past. It means they matter. Such a feeling, though, is built on a falsehood. None of us are responsible for the evil deeds — or the good deeds — of those who came before us ... Andrews wishes history had been different — that the West had never been “won.” It’s a romantic thought, and it will be common among the many who will like this book. But he offers no hint as to how such a different history might have come about, nor does he reflect that if it had, he wouldn’t be here to appreciate it. A memoir is history as the writer recalls it. In this case the memoirist essays to have his past and reject it too.
Although it’s labeled as a memoir, Holding Fire also has many elements of regional nonfiction, natural history and even social science. As a result, it is structured in a fresh and unpredictable way ... As Andrews ruminates on his personal history, he dots his musings with descriptive, emotive prose ... Holding Fire is a meditation on the past, present and future of not only Andrews’ own life but also the lives of all mortal creatures.
