Brave Cowboy

Edward Abbey's first-best book is, of course, "Desert Solitaire," that fictionalized non-fiction work that so eloquently celebrates the pristine Southwest wilderness and mourns its destruction at the hands of industry and politics. "The Brave Cowboy" is known to many through its filmization with Kirk Douglas. Despite the inane title, "Lonely Are the Brave," it is an excellent movie. But the book is even more excellent. If you see this work purely as social commentary -- the individual at odds with society -- you miss the point. That aspect of the book, while it is an impassioned message from one of this country's best nature writers, is almost too obvious to deserve mention. The message -- and the beautifully detailed setting of Western plains and mountains -- is the background. The foreground is a character study of Jack Burns, a man in perpetual rebellion against authority and incapable of commitment to anything outside of himself. He is generous and caring, but he allows no one to penetrate his stubborn exterior. He refuses to be vulnerable to love or to any of the normal compromises that permit even the most hardened of us individualists to survive in the real world. He is inevitably doomed by his own intransigence, and that is what makes the story more than just "sad": it is a genuine tragedy. And like all successful tragedies, it is uplifting. The book's triumph is that, even while we know the outcome, we envy Jack Burns. This book is a youthful work. You won't find a Hemingway or a Fitzgerald in the writing style, or even a Jack London. It is a popular book, more like a best-seller than "literature." Nevertheless, the excellence of its story raises it above the main. It is simply a great, and greatly affecting, read.

Edward Abbey's first published novel is a modern-day western set in New Mexico. Its hero, Jack Burns, is a man unable to come to terms with an increasingly civilized west, who becomes a fugitive from the law after he attempts to help his friend break out of jail. Hunted by the authorities, he complicates his escape by refusing to leave his skittish horse behind. Despite the awful title, it is a well-written, entertaining novel that explores the tension between personal freedom and modern civilization against a backdrop of stark natural beauty. Made into an even better film under the title Lonely Are the Brave. Coincidentally, I read this book after finishing Rand Johnson's excellent new novel "Arcadia Falls", which tho set in the suburban east, is thematically very similar.

This is one of Abbey's first books and will seem to be crudely written if you have read him before. For me it was interesting to see how far he came in his writing style. But this is a good story just the same. Although it moves very slowly and takes a while to develop it is quite good. You will recognize that the speed of the story is very similiar to the speed of life in desert towns and countryside if you have ever spent any time in either. Much of his message is transparent from the beginning of the book but it still an enjoyable read. If you like the book you will really appreciate the movie being that it is a very good interpretation of the book. It is called 'Lonely Are The Brave' and stars Walter Mathau and Kirt Douglas.

For those who weren't lucky to have read Abbey chronologically, I'm afraid there are layers that you have missed. (The cowboy for instance.) All advance climbing necessary to reach comfortable rock to lean against while reading "Fool's Progress". Since "Jonathan Troy" is long out of print, fried salted mutton and beans over juniper coals at dawn is not a bad place to begin. Abbey, in this story, dives into the great and growing conflict between the wilderness and the coming of the machine, the struggle of those living between the reality and the romance. Or maybe just two realities. Abbey's comment back in the early 50"s on big brother and the BS rings true today.

A tale of friendship and loyalty in the new west. But the main character Burns is definitley from the old west. It brings up the question of progress; is progress a good thing? It also makes you question what is right and what is wrong. The author Edward Abbey loves to make you question authority and he does it well in this book. A very good read.