The Necessity of Empty Places

This book is a series of word paintings of wilderness, no story here. I found it an antidote to a busy life. If you can't get outdoors, live in the city perhaps, it's a way to escape without going anywhere, like good books are. Some of the images he paints have me planning a vacation to places I wouldn't have otherwise wanted to visit, like Nebraska (no offense meant to Nebraskans, I'm sure it's a great state). Halfway through the book I got curious about the writer and looked him up. It was devastating to learn he could see such beauty in the world but not enough to keep living. I had to put the book away for a while, but I still read it when I need a dose of nature.

This book is an enjoyable mix of travelogue and environmental philosophy, but the travelogue portion is more limited than it seems at first glance. A few chapters describe Gruchow's visits to interestingly empty places in Minnesota and Nebraska, but most of the rest of the book deals with two backpacking trips in the mountains of Wyoming. In each chapter Gruchow's writing evolves quickly from a scenery-based travelogue to soul searching and very in-depth musings on mankind's place in nature. The book essentially becomes a series of essays on why people have become disconnected from nature in the modern world, and should spend far more time in the empty spaces that Gruchow enjoys visiting. His thoughts on these matters are deeply philosophical with a real talent for big-picture analysis on the state of human society. Some great examples are Gruchow's use of the population distribution of robins to describe how corporate America is homogenizing our natural diversity (chapter 9), and a staring contest with a trout in a mountain lake that kicks off a wave of social and personal philosophy (chapter 18). Gruchow's writing has the tendency to get drifty and to go off on very long and mundane tangents - beware of sections that are written in the second person especially. But this style of writing (and thinking) is what happens when you're alone in nature with nothing but your thoughts. Gruchow proves that more people should experience this state of mind.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Necessity of Empty Places. It's vivid desciptions of the praririelands of the US and it's thought provoking insights into the relationship that humans have with their environment make the book a satisfying page-turner. Bits of humor and humility keep the book fun and refreshing