Richard Shelton (1933–2022)

A terrific book. Poignant without being sentimental, moving without being naive. Shelton is an inspiring example of how a writer can make a difference in the world. As someone who also teaches in a prison, I found his perspective on the moral ambiguity of caring about people who have often, undeniably, done terrible things, extremely valuable. His examples of people who have transcended their pasts and their horrible, stupid choices, as well as those who have endured terrible miscarriages of show more justice and sometimes inhumane treatment is humbling. He is not, as I have said before, naive. He sees quite clearly the violence and twisted thinking of the men he comes in contact with behind bars...he also points out that a good number of them are not inmates, but guards/staff. The lines of who is a criminal and who is not are thought-provokingly blurred. I would be surprised by anyone who could read this book and not have their thinking changed by it. We are all, in one way or another, criminals, and all the victims of crime. Shelton successfully breaks down the barriers of us vs them. As Robert Benchley once said, "There are only two kinds of people in the world -- those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't." show less

Mr. Shelton's lovely non-fiction book never travels in a straight line, and the reader isn't going to get back to Bisbee any time soon. He rambles, digresses, and describes, explains and reflects, and throws in his own personal philosphy for good measure. And he anthropomorphizes. Boy, does he anthropomorphize, and not just animals but also his old van, buildings, plants, about anything that crosses his path. Since I tend to do that myself, I don't have a problem with it. And he encounters show more ghosts. I don't have a problem with that, either.

The author's love and respect for the southern Arizona desert makes this book a gem. I learned a bit of history of the area, about a early fort where the Buffalo Soldiers were sent, the Apaches who made the area so unsafe for settlers and miners, the booms and busts of mining in the area, and the resilience of the people who lived in and around Bisbee. I learned a great deal about this desert, and the things, sentient and otherwise, that populate it. And all in a wonderful, lyrical prose. I learned about the author and his tolerant wife, but this was not so much a memoir as it was a journey. The author apparently did not have an ideal childhood, but he did not delve into that part of his life, only alluded to it.

The author has respect for all the natural creatures of the desert, and his writing about our horrid treatment of coyotes, past and present, is especially poignant:

“I do not understand how the person who truly loves a dog, loves it enough sometimes to risk his or her life for it, can exterminate coyotes, the dog's cousin, in hideous and sadistic ways.”

“We love and cherish our dogs because they respond with loyalty and affection, and because they obey us. But the coyote, so much like the dog in appearance and even behavior, has refused to accept us as masters, has spurned us, and we can never forgive it.”

His stories of some of the children he taught can break a heart of stone. Mr. Shelton seems to be an idealist and a dreamer but also very down to earth, and the combination made this book highly readable for those of us who don't mind taking the long way 'round. show less

A story not just about Shelton going back to Bisbee but he reminisces about various things on his trip back.The reason why he is going back to Bisbee is not nearly as interesting as the stories he tells about the ghost towns, flora and fauna, storms and Bisbee history.

A powerful evocation of the Sonoran desert in Southern Arizona. The reader can almost smell the creosote in the desert rain as Shelton describes a nostalgic return to Bisbee with many intriguing side stories about nature, history and humor.