Edward Abbey: A Life
by James M. Cahalan

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Book Summary Information

• Bio, Edward Abbey, Literary Icon

Book Reviews of Edward Abbey: A Life

Book Review: A Three Star Book About a Five Star Man
Summary: 2 Stars

In the book I read, the author repeatedly placed himself
between the book's subject and the reader ("I went to Abbey's fiftieth
Indiana reunion in September 1995, where he was posthumously honored,
and I expected to hear that he was an unforgettable character and
perhaps a practical joker" p21). In other places, Cahalan seems
hell-bent on making a most unlikely comparison stick in the reader's
mind--"The Abbey's unstable, obscure existence is underscored even
more sharply if one contrasts it with the "beautiful life" enjoyed by
a more famous, older Indiana county native: Jimmy Stewart." Please!
Most disturbing to me is Cahalan's failure to really dig inside of
Abbey's life to find out what makes a person write such incredibly
vivid and inspiring prose. Instead, he chose to do to Ed Abbey what
Mary Street Alinder did to Ansel Adams--attempt to smear a genius by
highlighting his sex life. Referring to one of Abbey's "friends,"
Cahalan writes the following unfootnoted sensationalism: "One of them
with medical training noted that, if Abbey had been born just slightly
later--with his peak 1970s promiscuity occurring instead a decade or
two later, at the height of the AIDS epidemic--he would not have lived
as long as he did."

Professor James Cahalan presumes to evoke the
great Clifford Gertz's phrase "thick description" as a explanation of
this biography. Well, I guess the book is thick.

Ed Abbey did say,
"One brave deed, performed in an honorable manner and for a
life-defending case, is worth a thousand books."

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