Across the High Lonesome

All the other reviewers will give you an idea what the basic story line is, so, not to be redundant, and if I may, here's my take on this wonderful book. Inside the (book) covers, the author asks (para-phrasing) what is it about cowboys that good girls lose all their inhibitions and can't wait to jump into their sleeping bags? Well, it could be their rugged good looks (check out the author's delicious self on the back cover), or the big cowboy...hats or maybe just the high altitudes of the mountains in the story. Or, then, it could be the daily nude mixed bathing in little icy creeks or sunbathing buck naked on the shore of a peaceful lake - all taken in stride and saddle by the cowboys and cowgirls who take parties of dudes for mule packing tours in the beautiful Eastern High Sierras. Jim McNay Brumfield blends it all beautifully with the excitement of the mule packing trips in the gorgeous mountains (see mountain slide show @ [...] website). He also tells us that about 75% of it all is true, from his own 25 plus years of personal experience, and doesn't that add lots of extra juice to the tale. All the characters have their own special naughty-bits that ranged from sweet to amusing to mind-boggling. Besides the fun sexual interplay, I'll never look at a picture of a cowboy leading a string of pack mules in the same way again now that I know about the intricate art of balancing all the weight and odd shapes of the cargo for the trips. And how fast things can go wrong on the trails, and do, which are very scary and deadly. One particular death on the trail was very disturbing. This mule packing business has got to be one of the last authentic cowboy adventures left in America and who thought what magnificent animals these mules can be. This Eastern Soprano-land tenderfoot highly recommends this book that I call a piece of real Cowboy Americana....and mulepacking trips could possibly be one great family vacation besides! Bravo Mr. Brumfield!

It's easy to see why Brumfield was compelled to write this novel about mule packers in eastern California when you read his credentials in the back of the book. After 25 years as a wilderness guide and packer, Brumfield brought a little-known industry he loves to light. It's hard to categorize this book: part western, part romance, part tragedy, and all drama set in the mountainous national forests of California. Brumfield packs years worth of stories into one summer at Granite Creek Pack station with its romances and tawdry affairs, and triumphs and tragedies among an eclectic cast of characters whose love of the wilderness ties them all together. Molly Mendoza is at a crossroads in her life. After discovering her fiancé in bed with her best friend, the perfect life she had planned is swept away, leaving her future exhilaratingly uncertain. On a whim, she accepts a summer job as a backcountry cook for Granite Creek and finds herself tossed headfirst in with the gang. She soon finds that Don Davidson, the handsome and charming man who hired her, is not well liked for good reason, while she finds her dislike for packer Dwight Broussard turning to not only passion but a close connection that frightens them both. Dwight had never taken anything in life too seriously, even through long and difficult winters, but he's starting to realize he may need a long-term plan and he might want Molly around past the end of the summer. The book also delves to a lesser degree into the lives of Molly and Dwight's compatriots as the summer plods along through the mountains. As the book lacks a central thread to tie everything together, it reads like a series of short stories. Readers of "A Tourist in the Yucatan" (which Brumfield slyly and amusingly promotes several times throughout this novel) who were looking for another thriller may be disappointed that he didn't take the opportunity to centralize the stories going on around some sort of nefarious plot, but I appreciate all kinds of novels and understand why that might have destroyed the book's purity of purpose. I got the feeling that both Jake and Dwight were both semiautobiographical characters representing different periods in the author's life, as well as the other characters representing traits of people he has met along the way. The book's greatest value is what I think it was intended to do: shine a light on the lives of people who choose a physically demanding lifestyle over materialism for the sheer joy of being in the midst of one of the few wild places left in our country. While the writing is a bit stilted at times, the author somewhat uncomfortable with using contractions, the characters nonetheless came to life. I cared about what happened to most of them and felt their pain. I also felt like I learned about a different slice of life, and I'm glad Brumfield opened up this corner of the world for us to see. Perhaps now that this labor of love is under his belt, one of Brumfield'

On the cover of Jim Brumfield's second novel, Larry McMurtry of Pulitzer Prize winning "Lonesome Dove" fame is quoted, "I thoroughly enjoyed "Across the High Lonesome" -- it's fresh, readable, well paced -- enough nature but not too much." But it is even better than McMurtry implies - a thoroughly enjoyable read delivered straight from the heart. [...] Brumfield's passion for the high Sierra and the life of a packer clearly evident, putting the reader in the saddle next to Dwight, Jake and the rest of the Granite Creek crew. Few writers can pull this off - as a former Navy nuke, Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" had me feeling like I was part of the submarine crew again, but such experiences are rare. I've spend some time in the Sierras, but "Lonesome" went far beyond capturing what I've seen and experienced, adding new layers and depths to a familiar setting. The characters were great - believable and human - the kind of characters that you feel you know after reading the book. Where "Tourist felt a bit stiff and forced to me, I found the pace in "Lonesome" natural, easy - kind of like a story told around the camp fire. That the author loves the life and the land where he lives it is obvious, but the ability to capture this spirit so convincingly on pages is uncommon. While "Tourist" didn't do it for me, "Across the High Lonesome" is a home run. Well done, Mr. Brumfield!

Molly Mendoza has just graduated from Cal Poly with her teaching certificate, ready for marriage to finance Scott Campbell and a life in the yuppie mainstream. That is, until she walks in on Scott with her best friend Shelly. Young and heartbroken, Molly has never really thought about any life outside the one she had planned. During a job fair, Molly had casually filled out an application for Granite Creek Pack Station. Now, after a call from part-owner Don Davidson, Molly is surprised to find herself heading up the Owens valley for summer employment as a cook for Granite Creek, a far cry from settling in with a classroom filled with third-graders. Don is one-third owner along with the curmudgeonly Ike Steel and his veterinarian daughter Joyce. Molly has no time to think about her decision as she is swept off the very next day on a weeklong packing trip along the Golden Trout Trail. And so her adventuresome summer begins. 'Across The High Lonesome' covers one summer with the Granite Creek Pack Station, and is full of adventure, laughs, tears, romance, scuffles, disputes, and ornery mules. Although this book is outside my normal genre of reading, I enjoyed this book every bit as much as I did 'Lonesome Dove' by Larry McMurty. Like 'Lonesome Dove', 'Across The High Lonesome' is a story about people and their capacity for growth, along with their eccentricities. The activities of this closely knit group of folks, Molly, Don, Ike, Joyce, Dwight, Jake, Pete, Tad, Trina, Kate and Bill, Burt, Nancy, Joe, and the entire rest of the gang will keep you reading long into the night, wondering what they have in store for you next. There is almost a soap opera quality here, as there is within any small company that is not held by the restraints of the civilized world. The all-too-human crew blends in with the wild background and make for a lovely picture, and an intriguing tale. Brumfield pulls no punches, this is life at its grittiest, wildest, and most serene. The characters are all too human, fully fleshed and irascible, down to the individual personalities of the animals. The reader can tell, though this is a work of fiction, that the author knows this wilderness and these trails quite well, the injection of realism is too poignant to miss. Do yourself a favor and google images from some of the places mentioned in this book, such as Mono Creek, Summit Lake, Pioneer Basin, and Shepherd's Pass. Brumfield's descriptions of the surrounding landscapes only cement his ability to make the wilderness landscapes bloom through his written words. It's magnificent country! Though there are some early instances of repetitiveness in Brumfield's prose, these are rapidly overlooked by the richness of the tale being told. I really cannot recommend this book highly enough, I wound out being so absorbed by it that I almost wanted to mount a mule and go riding myself. Definitely a 'buy'. Enjoy!

While James Brumfield's "Across the High Lonesome" is a vastly different book than his outstanding first novel, "A Tourist in the Yucatan", it is nonetheless just as excellent. Fans of the first novel will find this book is written with an emphasis on great characterization, beautiful descriptions of nature, and wonderful storytelling. Writing from his background as a "packer" in the Sierras, Brumfield admittedly draws from his own personal experiences in ".... Lonesome". The novel describes a summer in the life of Molly Mendoza, a wet-behind-the-ears college graduate who just found her fiance' in bed with her best friend. Molly decides to run away, from not only that experience, but from her predictable life as well and join up with a tourist service in the California Sierra Mountains. Along the way, Molly meets and becomes romantically involved with two of the wilderness guides, Don Davidson and Dwight Broussard. The adventures that Molly finds along the trail change her completely as she finds out more about herself than she ever dreamed. And, while the book is dominated by these three main actors, there are plenty of other memorable and unique characters along the way. Matching just the right amount of nature with story, Brumfield does a masterful job getting the reader to relate to the different characters. The reader will hit the ground running as Molly's story takes off practically from page one. Brumfield does not inundate the reader with page after page of word pictures describing this beautiful part of Northern California. He uses those descriptions effectively in moderation (especially in the last 2/3rds of the book) and doesn't "fluff" his writing. While, not necessarily an action-driven plot, Brumfield has created a book that is just good, basic storytelling at its best. Readers will easily relate to the many different characters portrayed in the book. There's plenty of both "good guys" and "bad guys" to go around. Plus, there's just enough suspense mixed with a modicum of violence to please a variety of readers. As mentioned earlier, by Brumfield's own admission "...Lonesome" is as much HIS story as a packer and wilderness guide as it is fiction. He writes from the heart and that passion for this way of life comes forward in his work. This is definitely a strength of his as a writer and was evident in his debut novel, "A Tourist in the Yucatan". (HIGHLY recommended, by the way) If you are a fan of Larry McMurtry, A.B. Guthie, or even the frontier heroine novels of Willa Cather, you won't be disappointed with "Across the High Lonesome". It is a solid effort from a very promising writer. Here's hoping that Brumfield will become even more prolific and continue to create more great stories like this one!