Lost Canyon

Nature has many faces. It can be peaceful and restorative. It can be forbidding and formidable. Or it can be anything in between these two extremes. In our mostly urban suburban society, we don't often find ourselves in untouched nature. We have to make the effort to leave our cities and towns and find the wilderness for ourselves. But being out in nature does not always go as planned, and it is not always as untouched and safe as we think, as the characters in Nina Revoyr's novel Lost Canyon discovered.

Intense LA fitness instructor Tracy plans to lead a challenging backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Three of her most dedicated students choose to join her on the trek. Each of them has a different reason for wanting this show more short retreat into the wild where they anticipate pushing themselves and perhaps finding answers to some of the questions in their lives. Gwen is an African American woman who works with under-served kids in Watts. She is haunted by the recent death of one of her students, a likable young man who was incredibly promising. Of the three of Tracy's students, she is probably the least fit and she worries that the whole trip might be beyond her physically. Oscar is a single father, Latino real estate agent who rode the real estate wave to major success but didn't get out before the wave came crashing down. Now he's likely to lose his shirt. He helped to gentrify the area in which he lives, only now questioning the wisdom and community-wide impact of doing that. Todd is a successful lawyer, the privileged white male of the bunch. His wife comes from money and he struggles to find happiness in the lifestyle she demands, feeling alienated not only from her but from his own children as well. Tracy will push all three of these very different people to the edge physically but they will all be pushed to the edge mentally as well.

When the quartet first meet, they form snap first impressions, based on their own superficial and preconceived ideas of race and class, their discomfort with each others' differences very evident. Each person in this disparate group is uncertain about venturing into the wilderness for a weekend with people so unlike each of them. But each also decides that it is for the short term and on a well traveled trail so they tuck away their misgivings and head off together. An encounter at a small store just before the park only serves to highlight the differences amongst the group, with some catching the uncomfortable racist undertones of the conversation and others missing it entirely. Once inside the park they are dismayed to discover that the route Tracy had planned for them is closed because of fires. A bit daunted, they eventually agree to an un-maintained, un-patrolled, and remote route that is only found on an old handwritten map of the park. They are perhaps seduced by Tracy's reckless overconfidence and a blind faith that she will not lead them into danger and so they head out.

The first part of the book introduces each of the characters, establishing their unique and differing back stories. The character exposition is slow but necessary in forming full pictures of each person and what led them to this life-altering trip. The narration alternates its focus on Gwen, Oscar, and Todd, leaving only Tracy to remain an enigma. Starting as a tale of people looking for something inside themselves in nature, the story quickly changes course. The tension escalates; suspense, a rising sense of uneasiness, and, finally, terror pervade the tale as the characters stumble into a frightening situation where they are not wanted. It is when the novel becomes a desperate tale of survival that each of the characters becomes fully realized and well rounded. As they find the reserves of strength within themselves, they also acknowledge fortitude in their fellows. Revoyr's decision to place her characters in the wilderness where they are forced to rely on each other and work together to escape an adventure that is suddenly life or death is a surprisingly successful way in which to address issues of racism and classism in unusual visceral and immediate ways. The ending is a bit abrupt and the symbolism of the unsolved mystery remained unclear to me but overall, this is a thrilling read which offers a hopeful pocket of humanity that survives and triumphs over both arduous and challenging natural conditions and the worst that human beings can throw at each other. show less

Deliverance meets the movie Crash in this survival adventure.

Well, that summary is perhaps a bit too pithy for what this book is and what it's trying to be. It concerns four Los Angelinos--Gwen, an African-American youth counselor; Oscar, a Hispanic realtor; and Todd, wealthy white lawyer--who go for a four-day hike in the Sierra Nevada mountains, led by Tracy, their thrill-seeking Japanese-American female trainer. I mention race because it is important to this story, and Revoyr spends some time setting up the back stories of the three hikers, jumping into each of their heads. Despite the idyllic natural setting, the tension begins to build before they even start hiking, as they first stop at a strange country store and then are told by show more the park ranger that their chosen trail has been closed due to a wildfire in the area. Egged on by Tracy, they decide to take the ranger's suggestion and hike a little-known trail outside of the park, for which their only guide is a decades-old, hand-drawn map. After one nice day hiking, they take a wrong turn, and events get terrifying fast. As the suspense picks up, so does the pace, making this a very quick read.

Through this straightforward adventure story, Revoyr is trying to take on race relations and turn stereotypes on their head, as she fleshes out her three point-of-view characters and shows how they each rise above expectations and overcome the challenges being thrown at them left and right. She does a great job making these three feel like real people, allowing the reader to wonder what we'd do if we were in their places; however, her villain comes across as somewhat cartoonish in contrast. Of course, the character who most intrigued me was Tracy, whose decisions were pretty much responsible for their predicament, and it was frustrating that we were never allowed to really know her. At the end, she literally disappears, which left me feeling dissatisfied. Overall, though, this is not only an exciting adventure story, but also raises a lot of interesting issues, about how we view one another and ourselves, and how extreme situations can help us get to the truth. show less

This superbly executed high-stakes adventure novel follows four urbanites from Los Angeles for a weekend backpacking trip through the Sierra Nevada Mountains intended to be contemplative on how to reboot their lives and quickly challenges their physical and moral stamina as self-realizations and doubts abound. As the author takes us into the souls of the diverse group of team members, their motives, and their part of Los Angeles we learn how this affects the first impressions they have of each other as the only one who knows everyone is the trail leader Tracy and then only at a superficial level.

When the intended well-used and monitored trail is closed due to fires, Tracy convinces the others that unused unmonitored trail will provide show more an enhanced experience of the wilderness without the hoards of people. The narrators are Gwen, an African-American woman who works with at-risk youths in Watts, a novice hiker who is grieving the death of a promising student, Oscar, a Hispanic and single father, who went from riches to rags as the real estate market changed, and Todd, a lawyer who married old money and feels stifled by all the pretense that comes with it. It is interesting to have the story narrated from their different perspectives, how they come together as a team and how they each react to the challenges presented to them. What starts out admiring the majesty of the landscape and the views, quickly turns dark and scary with one misstep and encounters with conniving and demented characters, has the team fighting for their survival. The reader is left breathless by the author’s poetic language of the magnificence of the landscape and tension created where even the simplest of decisions by the team might mean life or death.

I quickly turned pages as I felt like I was outrunning the bad guys, the horrific challenges mother nature presented, and so wanted to know who was going to win the battle. This is an excellent book club choice as it explores issues of race and gender, wilderness and civilization, and where does this all fit in when your newly formed team needs to put aside individuality for survival. show less

Four city dwellers of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds decide to take a weekend hike through the Sierra Nevada mountains. They’re led by their fitness trainer, who is ill-prepared and makes some bad decisions along the way. After taking a little used trail and coming across a marijuana field, the hikers run into some unsavory characters, who want to take their lives, and the story revolves around the four of them trying to get out of the canyon without being shot to death.

Although it starts out rather slow, giving background information on each hiker, the suspense eventually builds and kept my attention. The author did a good job of describing the scenery, both the beauty of the mountains and the dangers that lurk show more within.

Although some portions were hard to believe, and I wasn’t fond of the ending, all in all I’m glad I experienced the work of this author. show less

Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers

At first, I was really unsure about this novel. My first reaction was that I was in for a 300 or so page lecture on victimhood and Political Correctness. I must congratulate the author because I think my misconception was her intention.

LOST CANYON addresses the weakness of Political Correctness subtly and potently without resort to the term itself or its myriad manifestations. In fact, it appears to be about racism, and in a sense it is, but in a nuanced and profoundly intelligent way. More, it is about the prevalence of racial stereotyping by one and all and all that we miss out on because of it. It is the story of four people whose limitations in perspective are overcome and transcended during show more the course of a week in the wilderness.

Gwen, an African American social worker; Oscar, a Latino real estate agent; and Todd, a white attorney are brought together under the leadership of their personal trainer, a Japanese American named Tracy. We are introduced to each of them individually and learn their backstories independent of the others. This is important because although, as it is in real life, the first impression we receive is their race or ethnic background, we also learn who they are beyond the surface and begin to care about them. As they meet each other and begin their wilderness adventure together, we are privy to their inner thoughts and perceptions of each other. Because we have already met each of them, we know how wrong they are about each other. It is a journey for us, the reader, to take with them as they learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses, come to look to each other for help and finally to become united in their common experience.

Revoyr is a skillful and talented writer. It was a pleasure to read her. The beauty, atmosphere, wonder and power of the setting in the Sierra Nevada is beautifully evoked. Her characters are lovingly and compassionately fleshed out. And the plot swings you up and will not let you down until the very, very end. show less

Lost Canyon by Nina Revoyr is a survival story about a group of backpackers who find themselves in a world of trouble when they stumble upon a marijuana grow-op in the middle of the Sierras. What starts as a pleasant 4 day retreat from the bustle of Los Angles, becomes a nightmare trip as they are caught up in a battle between a drug cartel and some white supremists.

Of the four hikers only one, Tracy, is a seasoned back-country expert and she is the leader of the expedition. She works as a personal trainer and the other three are clients. Two of which, Oscar and Gwen, have very little experience in hiking, Todd, the last of the four, grew up in a rural place and has spent time in the woods and has hunting experience.

The story is told show more from three viewpoints, that of Gwen, Todd and Oscar. These people do not know each other well and have very different backgrounds. First they are turned away from their original planned route due to a forest fire. They decide to go far into the little travelled back-country for a thirty mile round trip but what begins as a trip to push their personal boundaries becomes a dangerous effort to survive.

I am the perfect audience for a book like this as I love survival stories. This exciting thriller kept me interested and turning the pages right to the end. Of course, as in all thrillers there was a certain amount of unlikely events that one has to swallow in order for the book to come together, but I was quite willing in this case to do so. The author did a great job in her descriptions of the scenic beauty that is to be found in the Sierra Nevadas but I wasn’t a huge fan of the twist at the end of book. show less

Outstanding book in so many ways. It is a first rate suspense tale, and an exciting trek in nature for those who love to hike. The novel also contains an analysis of culture, race, and how people respond to pressure, as well as providing engaging and believable characters. On the eve of leaving for an NEH trip for history teachers, I thought I'd just glance at the ARC I received before getting back to required reading. Well, I couldn't put it down, and even canceled my own sunset hike I had planned tonight so I could finish the book. Ms. Re our is a gifted writer and I will definitely pick up her other books as soon as possible. On future hikes, I will also make sure I stick to well-traveled trails!