Eugene weekly., December 13, 2007, Page 25, Image 25

Unfamiliar Treasures
THE NEXT RODEO: NEW AND
SELECTED ESSAYS by William
Kittredge. GRAYWOLF PRESS, 2007. PAPERBACK, $15.
William Kittredge grew up a rancher in
southeastern Oregon but became a writer.
And what a writer! Reading these essays
blasts through any illusions about cowboys,
about ranching, about how, exactly, the
beautiful landscape of eastern Oregon
became the blasted, irrigation-bloated,
salmon-destroying place where farmers,
Native Americans and environmentalists
battle it out for control of now-scarce
resources. Actually, a large part of the
destruction, Kittredge says, comes directly
from his family and his father, who was
renowned for his innovative ways of irriga-
tion and farming. But Kittredge was so
tuned out of the necessities of the farm and
ranch that when he left the Klamath Falls
area for college at OSU, he had no idea
what his agriculture professors were talking
about when they referred to his father.
Kittredge, who taught creative writing
for 29 years at the University of Montana
and coined the term “Last Best Place” for
that state, knows he’s no longer welcome
at the table in the land that birthed and
shaped him. He left for the Iowa Writers’
Workshop when he was 33, and as a con-
sequence, he can write forbiddingly gor-
geous things about ranching and his
father’s agricultural plans. Things like, “We
were doing God’s labor and creating a
good place on earth, living the pastoral
yeoman’s dream — that’s how our mythol-
ogy defined it, although nobody would
ever have thought to talk about work in
that way. And then it all went dead.”
In the multi-part “White People in
Paradise,” Kittredge takes on the mythol-
ogy of a landscape dominated by white
men (and he does mean men, who treat
women only as mirrors). “We must learn
to step on our anger,” he writes. “We need
to acknowledge that our populations are
stunningly various, with enormously
diverse ideas and dreams about the
future. We need to name those dreams
and fold them one by one into our agen-
das.” These self-examined but never self-
indulgent essays, bright, strong and ago-
nized, deconstruct the self, the landscape
and the mythos of the West — and could,
perhaps, lead to salvation. — Suzi Steffen
AT LARGE AND AT SMALL:
FAMILIAR ESSAYS by Anne
Fadiman. FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX, 2007. HARDCOVER, $22.
In a new collection — this one of
“familiar essays,” a form the author fears
is dying — Anne Fadiman brings her light
touch and curious spirit to a broader set
of topics than those discussed in her
2000 book, Ex Libris, which was, solely
and enjoyably, about books and reading.
But while At Large and At Small is osten-
sibly about topics as varied as a child-
hood love for collecting things from the
natural world and a fascination with
Arctic explorers, it is always, in some way,
about books. Fadiman quotes, she bor-
rows, she reads, she lists her sources in
the back in such a way that an enchant-
ed reader may find herself wanting to
read all of those, too. (A frustrated writer
may be glad to see the sources simply
because they do a bit to belie the envi-
able ease with which these pieces seem
to be written.)
Fadiman turns her
attention, her cheery
and informed tone, to
the essays of Charles
Lamb, the biography
of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, ice cream,
coffee, postage and
moving, investigating
her own interest in
things alongside the things themselves
without ever tipping the balance too far
to the personal or the objective. “Night
Owl” is particularly charming as she
addresses the issues of being an owl
married to a lark and the mechanics of
our internal clocks. New York figures
heavily into several pieces, including one
about the unfamiliar feeling of wanting,
after 9/11, to fly a flag. The closing
piece, “Under Water,” is a snapshot of a
heartbreak, a horrible moment that
exposes both the instant in which every-
thing can change and the length of time
a change can continue to affect a person.
This is a book for the curious, the unflag-
ging readers, the collectors of interesting
bits of knowledge and for those who find
joy in the least likely things. Like Ex
Libris, it’s a tiny treasure. — Molly
Templeton
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, GOODBYE: BANDS, DIRTY
BASEMENTS, AND THE SEARCH FOR SELF , memoir by Ronen Kauffman.
Illuminating the
Individual
in You
Holiday Photo
Specials
During December
Paula Goodbar
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95 Lawrence St.
www.paulagoodbarphoto.com
Maps and Legends
HOPELESS RECORDS/SUB CITY RECORDS, 2007. PAPERBACK, $16.
A good read for people who enjoy punk rock books like I, Shithead or movies
like American Hardcore, in NBNJG we experience the mid to late ’90s early
emo, ska punk scene through a college-age Kauffman as he lives it. I particu-
larly enjoyed the funny scenes, like the vegan straightedge band being pelted
by empty yogurt cups and beer cans. Familiarity with the bands is not neces-
sary, as music was more of the setting than a character, but knowledge of the
scene would definitely enhance enjoyment. — Vanessa Salvia
ROSIE LITTLE’S CAUTIONARY TALES FOR GIRLS , short stories by
Danielle Wood. MACADAM CAGE, 2007. HARDCOVER, $18.75.
These dreamy little stories, linked by their saucy narrator, who likes to inter-
rupt, investigate the ups and downs of the likes of virginity, truth, love, commit-
ment, work and destiny. Rosie Little’s perky tone borrows a bit from Miss
Manners as she instructs and advises, but her observations blend with pieces
of fairy tales into something entirely different. This is an enticing little book, full
of familiar moments, awkward situations and tiny bits of magic. These are sto-
ries, as Rosie says, for “girls who have boots as stout as their hearts.” As should
we all, really. — Molly Templeton
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“Because the Mouth Bone is Connected to the Body Bone”
DECEMBER 13, 2007
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