The Portable Western Reader

By: Various

Book Overview

The American West is as varied in its inhabitants as in its landforms. Yet what has come to stand for "Western" writing is the myth of the wagon train and the lone gunman. In the Portable Wester Reader, William Kittredge has assembled stories, poems, essays, and excerpts that transcend the Western myth and explore the vast range of Western experience. With selections from more than seventy authors, and an introduction and headnotes by William Kittredge. The Portable Western Reader redefines the Western literary landscape.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140230262
• ISBN13: 9780140230260
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The real West, what it was, what it is

Editor William Kittredge has done a remarkable job of bringing together this great collection of Western writers representing a vast swath of American terrain, covering prairie, mountains, desert, and Pacific Rim. At 600 pages, his book is an introduction to over 70 writers from the journals of Lewis and Clark and the collectors of Native American chants and tales to the writers of late 20th century fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.Some are well known and easily associated with the West: Wallace Stegner, A. B. Guthrie, Louise Erdrich, John Steinbeck, Edward Abbey, Maxine Hong Kingston, Raymond Carver, Larry McMurtry, Ken Kesey. Many are lesser known and deserving of a wider audience, such as James Galvin, Sherman Alexie, and Linda Hogan. As someone less familiar with the poetry inspired by the region, I appreciated selections from a wide range of poets, including the influential Montana poet Richard Hugo.Describing the experience of reading this book is like trying to sum up a year traveling in another country. There are several familiar works: Wallace Stegner's great story "Carrion Spring," set on the northern plains during the spring thaw after a horrific winter kill; the opening of Ivan Doig's wonderful Montana memoir "This House of Sky"; Terry Tempest Williams' chilling essay on the rising incidence of breast cancer in her family after above-ground nuclear testing in 1950s Nevada; childhood memories of homesteading in the Nebraska Panhandle, from Mari Sandoz' book about her father, "Old Jules"; a discourse on water from Gretel Ehrlich's essays about ranching in Wyoming, "The Silence of Open Spaces." There's also Edward Abbey's account of summer work as a park ranger in Utah's Arches National Monument from "Desert Solitaire"; a poignant memory of fishing in Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It"; a brief scene featuring the joyous prankster McMurphy, later immortalized by Jack Nicholson, from Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; a section about a man who stakes a claim on the Wyoming-Colorado border from James Galvin's brilliantly written memoir-novel, "The Meadow"; the evocation of a ghost town and the Nebraska prairie in the opening pages of Wright Morris' novel "Ceremony in Lone Tree"; and one of the many humorous recollections of frontier cowboy Teddy Blue Abbott, as he remembers his friendship with Calamity Jane.And there are wonderful discoveries. I liked Rick Marinis' short story "Paraiso: An Elegy" about two couples from El Paso on a car trip; Richard Nelson's account of deer hunting in Alaska from "The Island Within"; Raymond Carver's memories of his alcoholic father in "My Father's Life"; Larry McMurtry's demythologizing memories of his cowboy-rancher uncles in "Take My Saddle From the Wall: A Valediction"; Mary Clearman Blew's harrowing memoir of marriage to a wildcat oilman with a terminal pulmonary illness, from "All But the Waltz"; David Long's story of a ranch family's disintegration, "Lightning"; and John Haines' d

PART OF IT IS GREAT

I'm only 66 pages into it, but I love this book. I would never have known some of these writers. My favorites so far are the Navajo night chant "House Made Of The Dawn" and the writings of Linda Hogan, John Graves and Louise Erdrich. Thank you for editing this book. What a pleasure to read such high-quality writing. Such a sense of the American West. Such voices. I like the John Graves story about the old buffalo almost as much as I like the writings of Cormac McCarthy. If anyone ever doubted it, this book shows that there is great literature from the West. I will use this as a guide to further reading. I can't wait to read more. Well, I read more, and it gets slow and dull and disappointing. Sorry.

A unique view of a literary genre of America!

I highly recommend this book. I don't read anthologies usually, but a class that I am taking this semester, "The Western As America," required it. I sighed and picked it up with reservations. I have been won over by the variety and depth with which this anthology brings together. From a Navajo night chant, journalistic reportage by Stienback, "Legends, Heroes, Myth-Figures and other American Liars" by Thomas McGrath, and Alexie Sherman's "My heros have never been cowboys," (just a small example of the range in this book) the anthology questions our conceptions of literature and the essence of America. I couldn't bear to sell this book to anyone and I hope that you will give it a chance.

Excellent Coverage

I am typically not a reader of anthologies. However, I am glad I picked up this one. From the opening section on "Ancient Stories" to the final chapter on "Brilliant Possibilities" I found myself constantly bending back page corners to return to particular passages and authors. In his introduction, William Kittredge wrote, "We name ourselves and our futures through narrative. These stories rest on the West in layers, and reach out and out." Not only do they "rest on the West" but they shake the West alive. Shine lights into dark corners. Through this anthology, the Western stage becomes visable and one can see the true characters milling about. The mythological characters (gun toting individualists/weak women) aren't represented. This anthology clearly forms a basis for putting "Westerns" in the fantasy section and Western Literature next to its Southern conterpart.