Rick Bass

Published by McSweeney's Books and included with issue 40 of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, this book is a little revelation. The author, Rick Bass, his wife, daughter and author/activist Terry Tempest Williams go to Rwanda to teach creative writing classes to Rwandan students. First they take tours at memorials and learn about the horrific genocide of 1994. The descriptions of the violence is almost unbearable. They then teach students of a writing club encouraging the students to use the show more memories of the genocide they survived as youngsters to fuel their stories and heal themselves. Finally there is a trip to visit the mountain gorillas of which there are less than a 1000 left in the world.
It is all written beautifully and is incredibly moving, in fact, it's one of the most emotional pieces I've ever read.
The book concludes with some samples of the students' writing produced during the workshop. show less

Skip the Sunday analysis and read this instead. Wrecking Ball is a raw, gutsy, and beautifully written deep dive into football as a last refuge for the working-class man. Bass turns his own hard-hitting experience into a powerful essay on race, faith, and the simple, painful love for a game that just won’t let go. It’s one of the best books you’ll read this year, regardless of the genre.

Wow, what a great book.

I had read some reviews where people rated it lower because it involves hunting, and others because the dog dies in the end. I also read where one person rated it lower because he was bad shot.

What I didn't see in their reviews is the sheer poetry of the way Rick Bass writes. Beautiful writing. He captures the joy of a dog given full reign to run and hunt. I will copy and paste some quotes later into this review and also save them to my list in excel of favorite show more quotes. I like to look for passages I especially want to save, and most books don't have passages that hold up without somehow getting more context. In this case all his writing brings up such great mental images and feelings of raw joy.

Quotes:
To enter the world of bird hunting – to have the quarry leap into the bright sky, rather than bounding off into the brush, or into the fog – and to have a magician alongside and in front of me who would always reveal where the quarry lies… it was like passing through a door, one I didn’t even notice was there, into a place of light and beauty. – Rick Bass, Colter: The true story of the best dog I ever had

I think that in those moments, those perfect moments, when we are crossing the great fields like that, an observer looking down from a mile or two above – a bird’s-eye view – would not believe that we were earthbound. I feel certain that that observer would see the two animals, man and dog, moving steadily across that prairie – one casting and weaving, the other continuing straight ahead – would believe that they were two birds traveling in some graceful drift to some point, some location, know surely to their hearts. – Rick Bass, Colter: The true story of the best dog I ever had

The ending is very poignant. I never use that word. A sad ending is what we all have to eventually experience when we give our heart to a dog, but this one is different from others. You will have to read the book to find out. Like our dogs, the great joy that is a dog and what they give us up to that end point makes the end worth it, but still painful.

This book has made it to one of my top favorites and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is not turned off by hunting, (although he misses so often it's not like he kills too many birds). show less

This is an absolutely brilliant fictitious portrayal of a very real trio of family singers, The Browns, who during the 50's and early 60's tore up the country music scene only to see their fame quickly diminish as rock 'n roll and the new country music (which they helped usher in) turned their fans attention away. Maxine, the eldest sister who can't stand that their contributions to music aren't as greatly recognized as she thinks they should be, has such a great hunger to relive the group's show more height of popularity that her requests for a movie to be made of their story prompted Rick Bass to write the book. It doesn't hurt that the stories are so amazing--how close they were to Elvis Presley while he was just beginning, trading off with him for the current number one hit in the charts; touring with the Beatles; and their subsequent fall from fame. Rick Bass's writing style is perfect for the story, an eerily quiet method of description with little conversation that forces the action of memories and regret to drive the plot. I hope Maxine gets her silver screen treatment, because Rick Bass has set it up for a perfect retelling in the silent foreboding mode of Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood". show less