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Mountain Blood Will Baker 9780671660963 Books

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Mountain Blood Will Baker 9780671660963 Books

This book had been in my library, unread, for a quarter century; it never before garnered an Amazon review; and it is now out of print. It did not deserve any of those fates. Although MOUNTAIN BLOOD has a flaw, it also has great storytelling, both passion and compassion, and some brilliant writing.

Will Baker (b. 1935, d. 2005) grew up in Idaho. The two previous generations of his family had wrestled livings out of ranching, logging, and mining. Most of the stories in MOUNTAIN BLOOD relate to Baker and his family and the mountains and mines of the West, circa 1900 to 1950. They are quintessential tales of the American West.

The stories inhabit the uncertain zone between non-fiction and fiction. Baker forthrightly addresses the matter in his Introduction, which for me was in and of itself adequate reward for finally reading the book. Baker says that in several stories he did try to report the facts exactly, while in others he "imagined a good deal around central events that actually happened"; nonetheless, "the overall slant of the book is definitely toward the truth." He finds an analogue in the "oral tradition" - families and communities passing along their tales of life and truth in a fashion that is both edifying and entertaining. (In this regard Baker quotes Joseph Conrad: "The whole of the truth lies in the presentation.")

And for the most part, Baker's presentation, his storytelling, is top notch. Here's a paragraph from Baker's account of the time he drove to Tuscarora, Nevada, looking to do first-hand research into "The Legend of Great Uncle Jim", who according to family tradition had died in Tuscorara in 1909 in a gun-and-knife fight over the WBIA (the "woman behind it all"):

"The mountains were shrouded in high mist and light squalls were blowing through when I took the Golconda exit. Gray rain. And raining also in my heart--to embroider a little C & W on the edge of this tale--since I left Reno, where the dark-eyed waitress at Harrah's said it was a good pass and she would have been more than happy to consider it but she had plans after work to catch the tail end of Charlie Daniels' last set, and next week when Willie Nelson went through it was the day before her birthday and she had a date with her dad. I wondered if I was still younger than her dad and told her again about her smile and ordered another whisky, because there was some chance, maybe a good chance, she was lying."

There is one story that has almost no connection to the American West - "Father White Mouse". It is about the time Baker went on a hunting expedition with two Asháninka Indians of the Peruvian Andes. As Baker summarizes it, "It is the true story of how my son the monkey was killed by an Asháninka hunter and mourned by choruses of Old MacDonald's Farm." It is a gem and merits being singled out for praise.

The flaw in the book is that Baker cannot restrain his outrage over human greed, racism towards indigenous peoples, and the destruction of the environment. I actually sympathize with his causes, although I don't get as exercised as he (I am more fatalistic, I suppose). But for me as a reader, the occasional polemics - the screeds, even - contrast too sharply with the overall elegiac tone of most of the book. I don't mind the rants of Baker's father and uncle and other characters; they are part and parcel of what Baker is reporting. What bother me are Baker's personal fulminations. Besides introducing a rancorous tone to the book, they also, unfortunately, date a book (to the 1980's) that otherwise would have a sort of timeless quality to it - like Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It".


Tags : Mountain Blood [Will Baker] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Gathers stories, folktales, and historical accounts of the American West, and its prospectors, miners, and ranchers,Will Baker,Mountain Blood,Touchstone Books,0671660969,General,Mountain life;West (U.S.),West (U.S.);Social life and customs.,1935-,Baker, Will,,Fiction - General,History,History General,History: World,Mountain life,Short Stories (single author),Social life and customs,West (U.S.)

Mountain Blood Will Baker 9780671660963 Books Reviews

This book had been in my library, unread, for a quarter century; it never before garnered an review; and it is now out of print. It did not deserve any of those fates. Although MOUNTAIN BLOOD has a flaw, it also has great storytelling, both passion and compassion, and some brilliant writing.

Will Baker (b. 1935, d. 2005) grew up in Idaho. The two previous generations of his family had wrestled livings out of ranching, logging, and mining. Most of the stories in MOUNTAIN BLOOD relate to Baker and his family and the mountains and mines of the West, circa 1900 to 1950. They are quintessential tales of the American West.

The stories inhabit the uncertain zone between non-fiction and fiction. Baker forthrightly addresses the matter in his Introduction, which for me was in and of itself adequate reward for finally reading the book. Baker says that in several stories he did try to report the facts exactly, while in others he "imagined a good deal around central events that actually happened"; nonetheless, "the overall slant of the book is definitely toward the truth." He finds an analogue in the "oral tradition" - families and communities passing along their tales of life and truth in a fashion that is both edifying and entertaining. (In this regard Baker quotes Joseph Conrad "The whole of the truth lies in the presentation.")

And for the most part, Baker's presentation, his storytelling, is top notch. Here's a paragraph from Baker's account of the time he drove to Tuscarora, Nevada, looking to do first-hand research into "The Legend of Great Uncle Jim", who according to family tradition had died in Tuscorara in 1909 in a gun-and-knife fight over the WBIA (the "woman behind it all")

"The mountains were shrouded in high mist and light squalls were blowing through when I took the Golconda exit. Gray rain. And raining also in my heart--to embroider a little C & W on the edge of this tale--since I left Reno, where the dark-eyed waitress at Harrah's said it was a good pass and she would have been more than happy to consider it but she had plans after work to catch the tail end of Charlie Daniels' last set, and next week when Willie Nelson went through it was the day before her birthday and she had a date with her dad. I wondered if I was still younger than her dad and told her again about her smile and ordered another whisky, because there was some chance, maybe a good chance, she was lying."

There is one story that has almost no connection to the American West - "Father White Mouse". It is about the time Baker went on a hunting expedition with two Asháninka Indians of the Peruvian Andes. As Baker summarizes it, "It is the true story of how my son the monkey was killed by an Asháninka hunter and mourned by choruses of Old MacDonald's Farm." It is a gem and merits being singled out for praise.

The flaw in the book is that Baker cannot restrain his outrage over human greed, racism towards indigenous peoples, and the destruction of the environment. I actually sympathize with his causes, although I don't get as exercised as he (I am more fatalistic, I suppose). But for me as a reader, the occasional polemics - the screeds, even - contrast too sharply with the overall elegiac tone of most of the book. I don't mind the rants of Baker's father and uncle and other characters; they are part and parcel of what Baker is reporting. What bother me are Baker's personal fulminations. Besides introducing a rancorous tone to the book, they also, unfortunately, date a book (to the 1980's) that otherwise would have a sort of timeless quality to it - like Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It".