James Galvin

The big question here, is what took me so long to read this wonderful novel. It checks all my boxes. No answer there but I am glad I finally did. The author sets the story, on the Colorado/Wyoming border and it follows the people that have settled on this land, for the past century. It describes in beautiful detail, all the hardships and joys these people faced. The author grew up in this area and knows it intimately. It comes across on every page. The prose is spare and lyrical, bringing show more the stunning landscapes into sharp focus. I loved many of these characters but Lyle Van Waning, a self-styled bachelor and the central figure here, will go down as one of my very favorite literary creations. Don’t put this one off, like I did. Seek out a copy immediately. show less

I could be really lazy and just quote the blurb on the cover:

"A masterpiece. The Meadow is one of the best books ever written about the American West" - William Kittredge

I loved this book, written by a poet and about, not so much the high-mountain meadow on the Colorado/Wyoming border, but the people who lived and attempted to live on it. I will miss App and Ray and Lyle, and even Clara, whom I would have liked to have gotten to know better but I realize this wasn't her story. A mix of show more memoir, fiction and natural history, it begs to be reread as I'm sorry it ended so soon.
Highly recommended. show less

This book contains some beautiful language about the hard life of trying to make a living off the land in Northern Colorado. It is not at all surprising that the author is a poet. He grew up on the Colorado/Wyoming border listening to the stories his neighbors told about the stark land and the hold it had on them. My first association with The Meadow was through the audio version on a road trip to Colorado. I felt like the author was in the car talking to me as we laughed and cried over life show more and death in the shadow of the mountains. I enjoyed my reread of the book in a similar way, except that now Lyle, Ray, Frank, Clara, and the others feel like old family friends. This is definitely going to be one of my comfort reads. show less

This is the first collection I've read from Galvin, but unfortunately, I think it will also probably be my last. While there's some lovely language and imagery here, it feels like a majority of the poems prioritize "sound" over "sense", and while further read-throughs might make them more clearer, there's nothing there really pulling me to put the work in. In other cases, the poems here are perfectly clear, but just not particularly striking. In a few cases, I started out truly enjoying a show more piece, only to find that the ending fell so flat as to mostly ruin it for me. And in other cases, even where form is clearly in play, it feels like the poems are nothing more than broken up prose, and the truth is that I didn't feel much engagement or emotional impact at any point in the collection.

Not one I'd recommend, I'm afraid. show less