Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
185th out of 875 books
—
1,240 voters
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)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,905)
The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Ehrlich, is a beautiful little book that I happened upon in the sale bin at a used book store. In the late 1970s, Ehrlich traveled to Wyoming on assignment for her work, and stayed because it draw her in in her grief upon losing her loved one to cancer. She lived there for many years, living and working on ranches, and this book is a collection of essays describing her time there and the feeling of living there. Her writing is lyrical and almost what I would...more
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 least popula...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 least popula...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. Ehrlich writes abou...more
Elegiacal essays about hard scrabble Wyoming, sheep herding and living in isolation. Short, evocative and poignant.
“‘I don’t know what in the hell makes those guys [townspeople and city-slickers] think they’re smarter than my horse. Nothing I see them do would make me believe it,’ a cowboy told me.” p. 63
“Because they (herd animals) have the ability to read our involuntary tics and scents, we’re transparent to them and thus exposed -- we’re finally ourselves.” p. 64
Stylistically muscular, evoca...more
“‘I don’t know what in the hell makes those guys [townspeople and city-slickers] think they’re smarter than my horse. Nothing I see them do would make me believe it,’ a cowboy told me.” p. 63
“Because they (herd animals) have the ability to read our involuntary tics and scents, we’re transparent to them and thus exposed -- we’re finally ourselves.” p. 64
Stylistically muscular, evoca...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 Gretzky's name to boot). It's not that she should not have l...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 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 souls who live there...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 souls who live there...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.
Whi...more
Whi...more
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.
Where has Gretel Ehrlich been all my life? Hers is a voice that I should have encountered years ago: spare, incisive, sharply attuned to wildness, incandescently alive to beauty, terror, and the infinite gradations in between. I should have all her books already dogeared on my shelves. But the fact that I do not, that for now The Solace of Open Spaces and This Cold Heaven are the only ones I've devoured, gives me the greatest pleasure a reader can feel. I have so much to look forward to. The Sol...more
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 by lightning (about...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 by lightning (about...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 Ehrlich,...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 Ehrlich,...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 you w...more
Another memoir that feels as if it's several smaller stand-alone pieces stitched together. And still the pieces so often shimmered and delighted and were visceral and evoked so much love of place. I would run away to her Wyoming, only I'm afraid of not finding it. Of particular interest is the tying together of culture and character with geography. It was good for my hippie environmentalist upbringing to encounter the tender portrait of ranchers and a portrait of the cowboy as noble rather than...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 beautifully describ...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 beautifully describ...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 word portraits of the p...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 word portraits of the p...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 from wind..."
She interviews...more
"It's May and I'm just awakened from a nap, curled against sagebrush the way my dog taught me to sleep-sheltered from wind..."
She interviews...more
A short, very evocative book about the rural west, and specifically Wyoming. It reminded me quite a bit of John Williams' Butcher's Crossing, but while that book took place near the end of buffalo hunting, this one was contemporaneous (when it was written in the 1970s). Kinda falls into the generic creative non-fiction trap towards the end as she moves from telling about her personal experiences to more reportage about some of the other, native perspectives of the land, which is the only thing t...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 book.
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 book.
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 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."
May 05, 2013
Jared
added it
Sadly, according to Gretel, Jackson is not really part of Wyoming, and I think I might have to agree with her. Fortunately, I live in Kelly, so I would argue I have a bit more of the real Wyoming, even if it is green and full of trees. As far as her writing goes, boy does she love simile. I do appreciate her honest, unromanticized portrayal of cowboys, the chapter on the rodeo is very informative, and I'd love to make it out to the Crow Fair, although it is in Montana.
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."
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 to what is present: to who we are at the time, not who...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 to what is present: to who we are at the time, not who...more
Having lived in Wyoming for 8 yrs this book expressed many of my own experiences. I loved it! Ehrlich successfully expresses why we feel wonderful when we experience quiet and awe. If you love open spaces you will enjoy her writing and if you haven't experienced anything but density you will beging to long for a new experience. Try it, you'll like it.
Jan 21, 2009
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.
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 only to look at the...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 only to look at the...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 offering examples of their sensivity and...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 offering examples of their sensivity and...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
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
More about Gretel Ehrlich...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“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.”
—
23 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.”
—
10 people liked it
More quotes…
