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The Solace of Open Spaces
A stunning collection of personal observations that uses images of the American West to probe larger concerns in lyrical, evocative prose that is a true celebration of the region.
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
December 2nd 1986
by Penguin Books
(first published 1984)
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The Solace of Open Spaces (1985), by Gretel Ehrlich
I recently discovered Gretel Ehrlich, not that she isn’t well known by others. The discovery merely reflects my ignorance...and yet, I get great joy from finding new food—someone whose words I immediately want to absorb. I found the book in a used book store. The title alone intrigued me—one who thinks that soul nurturing places, solitude and silence are the final luxuries. And her essays are about Wyoming, my neighbor state and our le...more
I recently discovered Gretel Ehrlich, not that she isn’t well known by others. The discovery merely reflects my ignorance...and yet, I get great joy from finding new food—someone whose words I immediately want to absorb. I found the book in a used book store. The title alone intrigued me—one who thinks that soul nurturing places, solitude and silence are the final luxuries. And her essays are about Wyoming, my neighbor state and our le...more
Ehrlich falls in love with Wyoming when she comes there as a filmmaker, and decides to stay. I've been wanting to read this book for years, ever since I bought a used copy after seeing Annie Dillard's endorsement: "Wyoming has found its Whitman." In some ways it reminded me of Ivan Doig's This House of Sky, which I also read recently. The two books were published within a few years of each other (House of Sky in 1979 and Solace in 1985), and the authors are near the same age. Ehrli...more
This is a decent book of essays about living in Wyoming and working with animals and cowboys. The best essays are the title essay, "Other Lives," "Friends, Foes, and Working Animals," "The Skull of Winter," "On Water," and "To Live in Two Worlds." Not as good as Annie Dillard, but decent. The worst writing in the book occurred in the "Rules of the Game" essay when she likened the women who do barrel racing to Wayne Gretzky (misspelling ...more
When Gretel Ehrlich's partner died, she left her furiously paced New York life and moved to Wyoming to become a sheepherder. Even if you're not ready to drop everything and tend to animals, this book is powerful—I felt the solace that Ehrlich describes, and the city around me dropped away to reveal the clear, open, endless skies of the midwest and the relief of honest, back-breaking labor.
I loved this collection of essays.
It is as if you took the lyrical and sparse shorts Denis Johnson writes in Jesus' Son and cross them with the personal western narratives in Mark Spragg's Where Rivers Change Directions. Very different experiences of Americana, equally brilliant.
Those are two of my favorite books, so, needless to say, I give this a high recomendation.
This excerpt is a good example of what you get throughout:
"Animals hold us t...more
It is as if you took the lyrical and sparse shorts Denis Johnson writes in Jesus' Son and cross them with the personal western narratives in Mark Spragg's Where Rivers Change Directions. Very different experiences of Americana, equally brilliant.
Those are two of my favorite books, so, needless to say, I give this a high recomendation.
This excerpt is a good example of what you get throughout:
"Animals hold us t...more
I chose to read this book because the author speaks of the haunting aloneness of Wyoming's great open spaces, life in ranching, and her transition from city to rural life, and because of my family ties to Wyoming and having lived in the American west all of my life.
As the description on the cover says, "[Ehrlich:] captures the incredible beauty and the demanding harshness of natural forces in these remost reaches of the West, and the depth, tenderness and humor of the quicky sou...more
As the description on the cover says, "[Ehrlich:] captures the incredible beauty and the demanding harshness of natural forces in these remost reaches of the West, and the depth, tenderness and humor of the quicky sou...more
Set me in front of a western movie full of cowboys and other such stereotypes and I will be bored out of my skull. But, give me a book full of stories about real people in the real American West and I'm hooked. Whether it be stories by Bess Streeter Aldrich or Willa Cather about prairie life, or Ralph Moody's memoirs, I'm riveted. I've never understood it, myself, especially when it comes to Ralph Moody's books... but there is something about those stories that fascinate me like nothing else.
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Brief. Some interesting observations. Best when she stepped away from herself and just told us what she noticed, which wasn't often. Much too much was filtered through her urban literate pretensions. Everything the cowboys, Indians, sheepherders, and animals did was interpreted by her expectations and dreams.
Well written story of personal discovery. Portrayal of Wyoming is very crisp. It is a place of grand horizons, in which one's own place is clear. The American West is a great place for inspiration. A place where physical and spiritual survival are essential.
This is a very, very slim volume or I might not have been able to sustain my interest in the subject: nature/life of Wyoming. The author convinced me she is a gifted writer; the culture of ranching, sheep herding, rodeos, and the like was mixed with just enough biography to pique my interest.
My conclusion: I would like to read something more by this author who has multiple books among which to choose. I don't know whether to choose something she wrote before she was struck...more
My conclusion: I would like to read something more by this author who has multiple books among which to choose. I don't know whether to choose something she wrote before she was struck...more
This book suffered for having been recommended to me in comparison with Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Though she visits some of the same themes, Ehrlich's prose is much less connected and does not have the incantatory poetic voice that Dillard has. Still it is an interesting read, and I learned a lot about Wyoming cowboy culture up to the mid-1980s, which I'm sure has changed drastically since then, as it was starting to do when this was written. Some very good bits in here that got t...more
Life in Wyoming circa 1976. Gretel Ehrlich takes a break from her urban life - partly to mourn the death of a lover - and dons the mantels of sheepherder and cowgirl. Eventually she ends up marrying and settling into the ranching life like she'd never been a California girl, Bennington grad, and documentary filmmaker.
She has a great eye, a knack for describing place and character, and an eloquent prose style. I could almost see and feel everything she described. A great read. Thanks to...more
She has a great eye, a knack for describing place and character, and an eloquent prose style. I could almost see and feel everything she described. A great read. Thanks to...more
I've read this book too many times to count. The first time was sitting on an uncomfortable stool working behind the counter of a very small, rarely visited used bookstore. It was a dark time in my life and when I could see the light of day again I gathered my courage, moved to Wyoming and went back to school. I don't even care that it is predictable. I might do it again someday. This book will always be in my top ten. It is beautifully written and describes its setting in a way that makes...more
Gretel Ehrlich has resounding prose and acclaim for Wyoming. The Solace of Open Spaces
reads like a collection of essays, with a storyline woven through it, both seasonal as Wyoming's seasons come, and seasonal as emotions and change affect life and death.
She introduces us to many characters, often with quotes and examples and often revisiting them to flesh out the language and character of her small town. Her eloquence makes even the difficulties and death beautiful, and she beautif...more
reads like a collection of essays, with a storyline woven through it, both seasonal as Wyoming's seasons come, and seasonal as emotions and change affect life and death.
She introduces us to many characters, often with quotes and examples and often revisiting them to flesh out the language and character of her small town. Her eloquence makes even the difficulties and death beautiful, and she beautif...more
I took this book on vacation simply because it was compact and didn't take up a lot of space. After reading it, I wonder how it could be so small when the writing and language was so large.
"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying, gleaming, still." Whether she's reflecting on nature's teachings, divulging her experiences as a cowpuncher, or painting vivid w...more
"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying, gleaming, still." Whether she's reflecting on nature's teachings, divulging her experiences as a cowpuncher, or painting vivid w...more
Part travelogue, part journal, Gretel Ehrlich writes from her own wild west Walden Pond -- but it's got sage brush, rattlesnakes, tornadoes and nights that hit 40 below. She says she didn't plan to stay. She came to "the planet of Wyoming" after the loss of her partner, to write an article for PBS(?) and found herself living alone in a cabin with her dogs.
"It's May and I'm just awakened from a nap, curled against sagebrush the way my dog taught me to sleep-sheltered f...more
"It's May and I'm just awakened from a nap, curled against sagebrush the way my dog taught me to sleep-sheltered f...more
Gretel Ehrlich is a master technician of the English language!
This book is filled with so much lyrical prose that I could hardly pull a sentence out without feeling extreme guilt for turning a full-blown idea into a snippet.
This is a very small book, only 130 pages long, but it is chock full of wonderful writing in it's twelve chapters.
I agree with Annie Dillards's comment: 'Vivid, tough and funny. . .Wyoming has found its Whitman. . .an exuberant and powerful bo...more
This book is filled with so much lyrical prose that I could hardly pull a sentence out without feeling extreme guilt for turning a full-blown idea into a snippet.
This is a very small book, only 130 pages long, but it is chock full of wonderful writing in it's twelve chapters.
I agree with Annie Dillards's comment: 'Vivid, tough and funny. . .Wyoming has found its Whitman. . .an exuberant and powerful bo...more
A series of interlocking personal essays on living and ranching in Wyoming. The book has the twin virtues of brevity (it's only 131 pages long) and clarity, and lives as a testament to that still vital Thoreauvian counter-current which runs through American life. Ehrlich has subsequently written other books, including one about being struck by lightning, all of which are exceedingly fine, but none of which consistently show the spark of natural genius that this one does throughout.
I'm a huge Gretel Ehrlich fan, and I loved this book. It will go on the shelf with a handful of others that will never be culled and will be re-read again and again. There are almost as many dog-eared pages to mark passages I want to revisit as there are pages that are not so marked. The characters in these essays are unforgettable, the landscape unimaginable. For this kind of lyrical, humanistic nature writing, there are few that do it as well, let alone better.
I was much impressed with an Ehrlich essay, The Smooth Skull of Winter, found in anthology The Art of the Essay (ed. Lydia Fakudiny). She had me at the following line early in piece: "This fall ducks flew across she sky in great “V”s as that one letter were defecting from the alphabet, and when the songbirds climbed to the memorized pathways that route them to winter quarters, they lifted off in a confusion, like paper scraps blown from my writing room."
I'm currently researching writers for an environmental writing course I'll be teaching this fall and re-discovered this book from the 90's on my shelf. Here's a stunning sentence from the prologue:
"The truest art I would strive for in any work would be to give the page the same qualities as earth: weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; wind would sweep away obtuse padding."
"The truest art I would strive for in any work would be to give the page the same qualities as earth: weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; wind would sweep away obtuse padding."
Jan
added it
I am from the west and loved the way this story was written. It spoke to me about the love of the space between and the time that traveling between spaces gives you. That time used to contemplate how you feel and what you think about. What one person would find tedious a person from the West and the open spaces would find solace there.
This was an OK collection of Wyoming range stories. I was not expecting every story to be about Wyoming; I think Ehrlich is a great writer (though she uses the word 'undulate' too often and it annoys me) but I liked her other books better, as she was writing about Greenland and the north. Admittedly, Wyoming is her real home, the land she loves, and it was a really nice collection of experiences out in one of her favorite places, herding sheep and cattle with her cowboys.
Gorgeous writing. Part of me is sad I never read this until now, part of me realizes I may have not been mature enough to appreciate it before now. My favorite quote:
"From the clayey soil of northern Wyoming is mined bentonite, which is used as filler in candy, gum, and lipstick. We Americans are great on fillers, as if what we have, what we are, is not enough. We have a cultural tendency toward denial, but being affluent, we strangle ourselves with what we can buy. We gave on...more
"From the clayey soil of northern Wyoming is mined bentonite, which is used as filler in candy, gum, and lipstick. We Americans are great on fillers, as if what we have, what we are, is not enough. We have a cultural tendency toward denial, but being affluent, we strangle ourselves with what we can buy. We gave on...more
This was somewhat of a let down. I read this last fall for a class and felt like I'd missed something so I wanted to re-read it. But, it just is not compelling to me. Ehrlich has some funny moments and some amazing prose, but all and all, I was indifferent and couldn't wait to get to the end.
She offers great insight into the "real" west. She tries to show the complexties of the rancher life and to break the stereotypes of "macho" cowboys. She does this by offerin...more
She offers great insight into the "real" west. She tries to show the complexties of the rancher life and to break the stereotypes of "macho" cowboys. She does this by offerin...more
This book is a bit more of a series of essays; some of them I enjoyed immensely and a couple of them not so much. I think because of the style there is a bit of a disjointed quality to the book and you find some things left out or missing that are a bit frustrating. Over all the book is a beautiful read and I would recommend it to anyone with a fascination for the ranch life.
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Book started out promising. You really get a feeling for Wyoming. It's so real! However, as the book progresses she rambles in a pseudo-philosophical way mixing up personal insights with the environment. It just gets very weird because she's describing the very earthy, non-pretentious people and environment of Wyoming in such a forced intellectual manner. Strange!
A friend gave me this book before I left the country last year. Who knew my brother would move to Wyoming within the year? I was happy to have the book on hand to learn more about the state and because Erlich's writing is lovely.
Another love song to the natural world. It seems like something out of this century--yet, amazingly, for some the life on the land endures. I was knocked out by the everyday hardships this woman went through to pursue the beloved country.
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Gretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, novelist, essayist, and poet born on a horse ranch near Santa Barbara, California and educated at both Bennington College in Vermont and UCLA film school. After working in film for 10 years and following the death of a loved one, she began writing full-time in 1978 while living on a Wyoming ranch where she had been filming. Her first book, The Solace o...more
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“Autumn teaches us that fruition is also death; that ripeness is a form of decay. The willows, having stood for so long near water, begin to rust. Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons.”
—
14 people liked it
“The truest art I would strive for in any work would be to give the page the same qualities as earth: weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; wind would sweep away obtuse padding.”
—
8 people liked it
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