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The Heart of the Monster
Follow their fight to save salmon, forests, & communities throughout Idaho, Montana, and, ultimately, the world.
- GenresNonfiction
249 pages, Paperback
First published December 20, 2010
About the author
Rick Bass
102 books447 followersRick Bass was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in Houston, the son of a geologist. He studied petroleum geology at Utah State University and while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi, began writing short stories on his lunch breaks. In 1987, he moved with his wife, the artist Elizabeth Hughes Bass, to Montana’s remote Yaak Valley and became an active environmentalist, working to protect his adopted home from the destructive encroachment of roads and logging. He serves on the board of both the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies and continues to live with his family on a ranch in Montana, actively engaged in saving the American wilderness.
Bass received the PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988 for his first short story, “The Watch,” and won the James Jones Fellowship Award for his novel Where the Sea Used To Be. His novel The Hermit’s Story was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year in 2000. The Lives of Rocks was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2006 by the Rocky Mountain News. Bass’s stories have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and have been collected in The Best American Short Stories.
Bass received the PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988 for his first short story, “The Watch,” and won the James Jones Fellowship Award for his novel Where the Sea Used To Be. His novel The Hermit’s Story was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year in 2000. The Lives of Rocks was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2006 by the Rocky Mountain News. Bass’s stories have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and have been collected in The Best American Short Stories.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 7, 2013
read it... NOW!
July 17, 2023
Two of my favorite writers worked together: Rick Bass and David James Duncan.
They are both terrific story tellers.
Their combined efforts tell the story about the Tar Sands in Alberta and the company behind this horrendous effort by Exxon Mobile to transform the tar sands into petroleum products.
To stop this business would be good for the Earth and also Alberta. The land and the rivers are taking a heavy toll.
This heads up effort by these two authors was a shot over the bow, a wake up call to stop the mining of the tar sands in Alberta. For many reasons...
Well worth reading.
They are both terrific story tellers.
Their combined efforts tell the story about the Tar Sands in Alberta and the company behind this horrendous effort by Exxon Mobile to transform the tar sands into petroleum products.
To stop this business would be good for the Earth and also Alberta. The land and the rivers are taking a heavy toll.
This heads up effort by these two authors was a shot over the bow, a wake up call to stop the mining of the tar sands in Alberta. For many reasons...
Well worth reading.
January 22, 2011
A very passionate reminder of Montana's beauty, value, and why becoming a corridor to the tar sands is a bad idea. I'm not a spiritual person and in places I felt like I didn't want to go where I was being lead, but I appreciated the journey. Both writers have an amazing way with words and power of descriptions. Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot.
My only complaints (and I hate to make any complaints about a book that was written and published in about a minute and for a cause I believe in whole-heartedly): There are no citations. I am sure neither writer would deliberately misrepresent information, and they employed a fact-checker just in case. However, without the ability for a reader to locate the original information and context, "facts" are just statements.
Second, what can I do now to help? Solutions and a hopeful future are eluded to, but I want to know how I can make a difference and help stop the heavy haul. I am not a lay-down-in-the-road or chain-myself-to-a-tree type. I want to write letters, attend meetings, talk to my neighbors, friends, and family. Who do I write to? Where are these meetings? I'm sitting in Missoula Montana, about a week from the first possible load transport, trying to figure out if and how I can make it not happen. What are people doing, within the limits of the law, to stop this and how can I help?
My only complaints (and I hate to make any complaints about a book that was written and published in about a minute and for a cause I believe in whole-heartedly): There are no citations. I am sure neither writer would deliberately misrepresent information, and they employed a fact-checker just in case. However, without the ability for a reader to locate the original information and context, "facts" are just statements.
Second, what can I do now to help? Solutions and a hopeful future are eluded to, but I want to know how I can make a difference and help stop the heavy haul. I am not a lay-down-in-the-road or chain-myself-to-a-tree type. I want to write letters, attend meetings, talk to my neighbors, friends, and family. Who do I write to? Where are these meetings? I'm sitting in Missoula Montana, about a week from the first possible load transport, trying to figure out if and how I can make it not happen. What are people doing, within the limits of the law, to stop this and how can I help?
December 9, 2011
Sorry to say, the second half of the book written by Rick Bass, did not live up to the first half, by one of my favorite authors, David James Duncan (The Brothers K, The River Why, River Teeth). The book is a political work against the megaloads; although Duncan is occasionally repetitive or overstated, his passionate effort to raise the consciousness of the Northwest about the Alberta Tar Sands and the proposed megaload trail through the Lolo Pass from Lewiston is beautifully delivered and powerful, well worth reading. Bass' half of the book, however, while equally passionate, is excessively repetitive, and other than providing some personal insight into the character of Montana's governor (who secretly negotiated with the oil companies and approved the megaloads), the "novella" is overwrought and uninspiring.
On balance, if you read just the David James Duncan half, you'll have learned what you need to know about the facts, in a very well-written hundred and twenty-five pages.
On balance, if you read just the David James Duncan half, you'll have learned what you need to know about the facts, in a very well-written hundred and twenty-five pages.
April 1, 2014
This is an important book. David James Duncan does a solid job of showing the connectivity of water, earth, and spirit. Major corporations want to compartmentalize these connected entities and it hurts us all.
This book reminds me of a game: you're given a choice between either a penny today that doubles every day for a month, or you a million dollars right now. Taking the million seems like the obvious choice, but doing so short changes yourself by several million.
This book reminds me of a game: you're given a choice between either a penny today that doubles every day for a month, or you a million dollars right now. Taking the million seems like the obvious choice, but doing so short changes yourself by several million.
December 8, 2016
Not quite the level of mastery by David James Duncan; mildly enjoyable
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews