Fear Falls Away: And Other Essays from Hard and Rocky Places

by Janice Emily Bowers

Jan Bowers lives in the right place. A lover of nature and the outdoors, an avid hiker and backpacker, she is surrounded by mountain ridges, peaks, and canyons of almost every description. In this book, she invites us to come along and find out why some of these places are special, why some of them stay in her mind long after she has returned to the workaday world of the city. Readers have come to expect the best from this writer, termed "a rare talent. . . uncommonly good at the craft" by Wilderness magazine. Her new book is filled with creeks and meadows, tiny ferns and towering oaks, bears and butterflies and Red-tailed Hawks. We see gray clouds clogging the sky in a canyon, "wildly, almost tastelessly romantic, as full of clouds as a tea kettle with steam," and we startle a female grouse and her half-dozen fuzzy chicks "exploding from underfoot like billiard balls scattered with a cue stick."

Faced with the prospect of moving to another place, Bowers finds herself thinking about the familiar world in new and unfamiliar ways. Through her eyes, too, we see how an interest in nature and the outdoors developed from early childhood and how simple curiosity has led her to the most surprising discoveries. At odd and unexpected moments, her work also seems to bring new insights into herself and her life as a writer, a wife, and a mother. These pages promise a new adventure at every turn in the trail. For sheer terror, there's a climb up the face of Baboquivari, for laughs, there's the great bagworm caper, and for some quiet truths, there are themes of gain and loss, of connection and reconcilliation. Crunching through winter snow or sweating under summer sun, we know we're in the hands of an experienced guide. And we know we couldn't ask for a better companion.

Genres: Nature

169 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Andy Littleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bowers is like an Annie Dillard of Southern Arizona. Driven by the possibility of moving away, Bowers, a botanist, and her husband catalog their findings and explorations of the mountains and canyons near Tucson. Along the way she imparts select scientific insights as well as deeply contemplated reflections on life and the relationship between creature and creation.

[Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Good mountains, like good books, change as we ourselves change." pg.150

This is the longest it has taken me to read a short essay novel. I'm glad for the slow pace though. I quite like juggling lots of different books that pique my interest at different points. This one did just that. From the start of this book to its final line, I was also experiencing several beautiful moments within the natural world.
Bowers writes in a way that pulls you into whatever landscape she and her partner are exploring. I enjoyed deeply looking up the bugs, wildlife, and landscapes she navigates to find they appeared just as she describes them.
Her work helped me to slow down and appreciate the thriving ecosystem of insects that pervade our world and I feel so grateful for that. I have begun to pin bug specimens as a result.

I appreciated her connection to the natural world and how it impacts the way she views situations and processes life's ongoing challenges and events. Well worth the read.

[Ivan Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a reread for me from many years back. But it is well worth the repeat. Janice Bowers is an expert with word pictures and reflective thinking. And since I lived for a time in much of the terrain she discusses I am intimately intrigued with her observations and insights.

[Susan Eubank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice evocation of the Tucson mountains with meandering ruminations on all sorts of other subjects; mostly loss of place... I also enjoyed her breadth of reads that she quotes and weaves into the essays. As a librarian I was delighted with the notes and bibliography that traced the origins of her statements and gave others a start with where to look for more.

Here are the questions we discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on December 3, 2014.

• What effect did the mixing of memoir and nature have on your reading of the story?
• Was the author clear about her nature writing? Can you picture and understand the environment?
• What was your favorite quote or research from another author that she wrote about?
• What do you think about the perennial technique of writing nature books centered around a year’s time?
• What has lingered in your mind since you finished the book?
• What was your favorite fact?
• If there was one thing you would change about the book, what would it be?
• Did the notes and bibliography help with your understanding of the book? How?
• Did you think while you were reading the book that the move was really going to happen? Why or why not?
• What did you think about her relationship to mountains? Do you have that kind of relationship with any landscape feature?

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is botanist living in the Tucson AZ area. The book is short stories of her exploration of the Huachuaca Mts,Pinaleno Mts, Chiricahua Mts, as well as other areas of Southern AZ. Well written, incredibly interesting as she gives her professional and personal insights to the areas being explored.