Querencia

In an era where illiterates like Shaquile O'Neal and Tim Allen hit the top ten list with their inane blather, it was a gift from the Gods to stumble upon this gem. When I put Querencia (kur-en-see-uh) down after having read it in one sitting, I asked myself, 'How in the hell is it that I have never heard of this Bodio character before?' He is a MASTERFUL author, a naturalist on par with ANY giant your memory or imagination may conjur, and as genuinely sensitive a man as there ever was. Only after MUCH research did I learn that East coast publishers hate him (his other works explain why: he's smarter than most all publishing execs and editors COMBINED, which is intimidating if you are a micro-apendaged ivy leaguer with a hi-lighter), and that's why he is not a, 'sold' author. Too bad. If Oprah read this, she'd cry herself into a migraine and then make Bodio a NY Times #1 seller: it's that good. IF YOU READ IT BASED UPON THIS RECOMMENDATION AND DO NOT THINK MY ASSESSMENT IS ACCURATE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AND SET ME STRAIGHT! I am confident that I will not be hearing from you.

As a New Mexican who has probably walked over Bodio's boot tracks in the central mountains of New Mexico, I was completely captivated by his discriptions of this country that is so full of paradoxes and contrasts. No other author has been able to describe so well this unusual place and the affects it has on it's inhabitants: winged, four legged and two legged.

I knew Steve before his Odyssey to New Mexico during his student days in Boston. For a time, I boarded an eagle of his in my attic there along with a complicated girl friend (also in the attic) and frozen rats in my refrigerator. Years later, and long out of touch with Steve, I was looking for T.H. White's "The Goshawk" and found instead, in order, Steve's "Rage for Falcons", contact with Steve, and Querencia. This beautiful story of two Easterners going to New Mexico and integrating themselves into the landscape of people and mesas is a superb book on many levels. It is as funny as a James Herriot book on animals and people and as descriptive of the land travelled as Patrick Leigh Fermor's "A Time of Gifts". Woven in between the paragraphs on the changing daily life is the two people themselves. Without any sentiment or soppiness, without ever having to say anything explicit, you are drawn into a human story of depth and beauty. The bond between them is drawn out in each day's events and the shared environment in which they live. If you have ever unexpectedly found someone and loved, you must read Querencia. Then read everything else Steve has written (the book on shotguns "Good Guns" is filled with wonderful human descriptions for the non-hunter). Oh, and the eagle still lives, decades later, in the Berkshires.

Steve Bodio's Querencia was given to me by a bookseller in Tucson, Arizona. I always admire Clark City Press offerings, and this unflinching memoir is among their best--truly a gem. If you have ever entertained thoughts of what life might be like in a rural small town, this book can deliver that experience to you. Bodio explains in thoughtful, engaging prose how it's possible to make it on little money, and the pressures and trade-offs to living simply, doing what he loves, which in his case, is mostly writing and bird-hunting with an array of eccentric and loveable locals. Querencia is so much more than a journal of one man's risk to live out of the mainstream, however. Bodio's appreciation of the natural world, respect for the land, love of dogs both purebred and stray, and knowledge of animals gives this memoir a rich texture that captivates the reader. At the heart of things is the most marvelous love affair I've encountered in fiction or non-fiction in the last ten years. Honestly. One has to applaud this man's honesty and bravery for recounting what must have been the most tender and sorrow-filled time of his life. His willingness to reveal what it's like to love a complicated woman should be required reading for all men. But deeper than that, what is interesting about this book is Bodio's examination of his own self. His prose sings across the page with a poet's accuracy; he has a story worth telling. When I think of the many "memoirs" being celebrated in the press today, they utterly pale next to this must-read book. I sincerely hope Bodio is penning a sequel, because I can't wait to read what he has to say next. Buy this book for the smartest man you know, and if he is truly intelligent, he will thank you for it.