The Solace of Open Spaces
Essays
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4.3 • 26 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
These transcendent, lyrical essays on the West announced Gretel Ehrlich as a major American writer—"Wyoming has found its Whitman" (Annie Dillard).
Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn't leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on "the planet of Wyoming," a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life.
Ehrlich captures both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the natural forces—the harsh wind, bitter cold, and swiftly changing seasons—in the remote reaches of the American West. She brings depth, tenderness, and humor to her portraits of the peculiar souls who also call it home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers, dreamers and realists. Together, these essays form an evocative and vibrant tribute to the life Ehrlich chose and the geography she loves.
Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, The Solace of Open Spaces is raw, meditative, electrifying, and uncommonly wise. In prose "as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning," Ehrlich explores the magical interplay between our interior lives and the world around us (Newsday).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like many before her, poet Gretel Ehrlich discovered the therapeutic qualities of the West. In 1976, a time of personal crisis, she moved from the East to a small farm in Wyoming where she ultimately found peace of mind and inspiration. Originally, she had gone west to make a film for PBS; she returned to work with neighbors at cattle- and sheep-ranching, taking pleasure in open spaces. Ehrlich writes with sensitivity and affection about people, the seasons and the landscape. Whether she is enjoying solitude or companionship, her writing evokes the romance and timelessness of the West. November
Customer Reviews
Great read
This is a very stirring and raw account of one person’s point of view, of the west, of past and present, love this book, couldn’t put it down!!
Flowery prose meets the Wild West
More like a poem of western ranch life. The message comes through clearly - it’s a tough, lonely world out there in the open spaces, but it brings a special understanding of the nature of all things. In some ways Ehrlich”s prose seems a bit much for a lifestyle of such little comfort. Snow, driving rain, unbearable heat, physical injury, transient people. Ehrlich unveils the life behind the cowboy myth, starting with her very being - few imaginations place women in this situation, laboring alongside men against weather and animals. Against the idea of weaning calves from their mothers, there’s a bitter sweetness to her work on the ranch. She underlines the uniquely American work ethic and respect for honored tradition that keeps ranchers and cowboys pushing forward in conditions that would easily break most of us.