Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch

This is either a poignant, rather inspiring memoir of a person's search to give meaning to his life, or -- it's the longest. most sophisticated marketing brochure ever. I found myself comparing it favorably to Ivan Doig's sterling memoir, This House of Sky. Doig's memoir centers on his youth in Montana raising sheep, and this author's memoir is about his later adult life in South Dakota with bison, but the feeling of place and that deep connection with people and place is very similar, and, frankly, much appreciated by this reader. I am convinced that this is one of those rare books that both my wife and I would enjoy equally.

Well written
Slightly boring, just because I don’t really enjoy reading about fence posts, but I enjoyed reading about the Buffalo and what he is trying to do with the natural conservation of the South Dakota environment and ecosystem.

A great book that details Dan O'Brien's ups and downs as he turns his small Black Hill's ranch (actually just east of the Hills) into the natural grassland that it once was and then starts to graze his own buffalo herd on the land. He started with 13 baby bison and then he added on until he had a herd of 50 animals.

O'Brien is a likeable author and he paints a colorful picture of western South Dakota life. He doesn't sugar-coat the hard parts - the cold, the draught, the heart-break of divorce, bankruptcy and death. He is a philosophical rancher and tries to show how death is a natural part of life.

If you want to get inside the skin of a South Dakota rancher, read this journal-type book. Since we ranch only 3 miles-as-the-crow-flies from where O'Brien began his buffalo experiment, it was fun to read his accounts of people we know. Though I don't agree with all of his beliefs, I felt he was basically sincere in most parts of the book. I enjoyed his defense of South Dakota as NOT being a "wasteland," of course.

In a book that combines honest details about the bitter realities facing environmentalist ranchers with informative facts about wildlife, grass, and the struggles and rewards of raising Bison, Dan O’Brien manages to transform what might otherwise be a dull story story into one that tugs at the heartstrings. One of the first observations made in Buffalo for the Broken Heart gets to the figurative “heart” of the matter: the idea that, when it comes to the Great Plains, “it’s just a big, empty land” (6).

Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife.

Really liked, love the way he writes

.Dan OBrien es novelista, profesor de literatura y cetrero. Creció entre fábricas de neumáticos al noroeste de Ohio, pero siendo un crío contempló una imagen que marcaría su existencia: a través de la ventanilla trasera de un Chevrolet del 55 atisbó la desolada y sublime inmensidad de las Grandes Llanuras. Treinta años después compró allí un rancho y cambió de vida. Llegó con varios títulos universitarios y una inmensa biblioteca a un lugar en el que los libros no gozan de mucho prestigio. Se llevó un halcón como única arma para cazar en una tierra de impetuosos escopeteros. Y, para colmo, comenzó a hablar con sus vecinos sobre la importancia de preservar la fauna salvaje. Algunos pensaron que estaba loco y a otros show more les pareció un tipo peligroso. Desde aquel momento Dan OBrien trató de encontrar una forma de ganarse la vida en ese lugar bello e inhóspito. show less