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Recent Reviews
Porter Fox
Rave Star Tribune Along the way he reacquaints us with some hallowed names in American history ... Fox is faithful to these figures, and to the ways their actions helped shape the United States and its northern border. But to his credit, he’s equally concerned with the consequences these men brought to the indigenous population, giving equal time to important leaders such as Sacagawea, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Northland is a respectable primer on the fraught ways history has been unkind, indeed criminal, to Indians. But it’s also a travelogue, complete with the adventures—and misadventures—of a man traversing what is, in many places, still absolute wilderness. Fox is an excellent guide, capturing the majesty of the Northland’s diverse geology, flora, weather and seasons ... But Fox’s greatest accomplishment is that he uses all of the landscape and history to capture the people who live and work on the border now. Fishermen, ship’s captains and crews, canoe guides, Indian activists, militia members—each is brought to life with respect, and taken together they serve as an excellent portrait of the contemporary United States, and all the challenges we face.
Terry McDonell
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune The Accidental Life, chronicles those years in lively, flawless and fascinating detail. The result of his effort is a catalog of stunning portraiture ... But this is not a simple tell-all. McDonell also describes an industry that is constantly changing, with a cast of professional colleagues every bit as interesting as the writers he makes his subjects ... for the reader pining for a recent past that suddenly seems long ago, this terrific book will be a welcome reminder.
Larry Watson
Positive Minneapolis Star Tribune Whether Watson is describing the inside of a 1952 Ford Tudor, a homey tree-lined street in Missoula, an afternoon branding a herd of cattle, or a pair of elderly strangers making love as spontaneously as a prairie thunderstorm dropping from the big sky, he writes evocatively and with great persuasion. But don't think this is only a novel of pretty descriptions. There is tension and menace on almost every page, and Calvin finds himself in the middle of most of it...This book is vintage Watson: laconic, dramatic and tough as a dry Montana stream bed.
Annie Proulx
Rave The San Francisco Chronicle ...ambitious and essential ... Proulx’s unabashed critique of our headlong pillaging of the Earth is timely and angry and unequivocally political. But Barkskins is also a grand entertainment in the tradition of Dickens and Tolstoy, though Proulx has more style and panache than either of the old masters ... Proulx’s intelligence and outrage are on full display, and her ability to translate her rage is brilliant ... Whether she’s describing a forest fire or an ax head, a trans-Atlantic sea crossing or the peculiar qualities of a type of wood, she captures it all in surprising and masterful ways. And it’s in the finer details that her genius shines brightest ... For such an enormous cast, not many of the characters ever begin to feel like intimates, which, considering their great depth and nuance, is too bad ... Barkskins will surely survive as the crowning achievement of Proulx’s distinguished career, but also as perhaps the greatest environmental novel ever written.
Paul Lisicky
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune Lisicky explores love and friendship with what I kept thinking of as an 'expert vulnerability,' and the result is intimate and simultaneously heart-rending and heart-mending recapitulation of a friendship and a lifetime.