Mezcal

Praise for Mezcal: " Mezcal is also a lyrical meditation upon the ultimate strength of the land, specifically the desert Southwest, and how that land prevails and endures despite every effort of modern industry and development to rape and savage it in the name of progress. Mezcal lingers in the mind as only the very best books manage to do."—Harry Crews "The author . . . excavates his own tormented life—and its relation to the land he loves—in a series of powerful, imagistic autobiographical essays. Like the desert he cherishes, this memoir is harsh yet lovely, full of sour self-truth. . . . A potent presentation of the wounds of one man's life, packed with indelible impressions; but there's little healing here, making this a bitter if beautiful read."— Kirkus Review "In Mezcal . . . Bowden drops the journalistic veil, exploring the ecology of his interior landscape at least as thoroughly as the changing scenery that surrounds him. . . . Others—Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey—have already staked inviolate claims on the Southwestern deserts. But Bowden owns the complex terrain where, like a mezcal-inspired mirage, the Sonoran sun-belt overlaps the gray convolutions of the American mind."— Los Angeles Times The acclaimed author “excavates his own tormented life—and its relation to the land he loves—in a series of powerful, imagistic autobiographical essays” ( Kirkus Reviews ). “Romping drunkenly into Mexico, protesting the Vietnamese war at the University of Wisconsin, marching on the capitol in Washington, hiking into the Pinacate, returning to the family farm in Germantown, Iowa. These and other scenes flash before the reader in Charles Bowden’s Mezcal , the final piece of his Southwest trilogy . . . Although the book is ostensibly autobiographical, Bowden’s overriding concern is with trying to make sense of the Sunbelt Phenomena.” —Dick Kirkpatrick, Western American Literature “In Mezcal . . . Bowden drops the journalistic veil, exploring the ecology of his interior landscape at least as thoroughly as the changing scenery that surrounds him . . . Others—Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey—have already staked inviolate claims on the Southwestern deserts. But Bowden owns the complex terrain where, like a mezcal-inspired mirage, the Sonoran sun-belt overlaps the gray convolutions of the American mind.” — Los Angeles Times “ Mezcal is also a lyrical meditation upon the ultimate strength of the land, specifically the desert Southwest, and how that land prevails and endures despite every effort of modern industry and development to rape and savage it in the name of progress. Mezcal lingers in the mind as only the very best books manage to do.” —Harry Crews, author of A Feast of Snakes "Praise for Mezcal "Mezcal is also a lyrical meditation upon the ultimate strength of the land, specifically the desert Southwest, and how that land prevails and endures despite every effort of modern industry and development to rape and savage it in the name of progress. Mezcal lingers in the mind as only the very best books manage to do."--Harry Crews. "The author . . . excavates his own tormented life--and its relation to the land he loves--in a series of powerful, imagistic autobiographical essays. Like the desert he cherishes, this memoir is harsh yet lovely, full of sour self-truth. . . . A potent presentation of the wounds of one man's life, packed with indelible impressions; but there's little healing here, making this a bitter if beautiful read."--Kirkus Review. "In Mezcal . . . Bowden drops the journalistic veil, exploring the ecology of his interior landscape at least as thoroughly as the changing scenery that surrounds him. . . . Others--Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey--have already staked inviolate claims on the Southwestern deserts. But Bowden owns the complex terrain where, like a mezcal-inspired mirage, the Sonoran sun-belt overlaps the gray convolutions of the American mind."--Los Angeles Times" -- Provided by publisher A reissue from the author of Blue Desert and The Red Caddy that charts the disintegration of the land, the loss of friends to drugs, and the decline of American innocence.