"Here is a book that is informative, insightful, and often as close to poetry as good prose can get."
- From back cover
Bass is my favorite contemporary nature writer. I also highly recommend The Book of Yaak.
- From back cover
Bass is my favorite contemporary nature writer. I also highly recommend The Book of Yaak.
This is a wonderful book...In this celebration of winter in a remote valley of thirty inhabitants, the last valley in Montana without electricity, Rick Bass describes the wildness and freedom of the valley people, the slow-motion quality of life as if it were one hundred years ago. Impressions abound: trees popping like firecrackers in the dead of winter; white rabbits as large as cats; bull elk eating hay alongside cows; the Dirty Shame Saloon, where the people gamble, drink beer, gossip, and watch football on TV. Rick Bass describes the physical dangers of wilderness life; getting lost in a blizzard; how a chain saw can rip open your leg; the omnipresent threat of fire.