Even in its hardcover
form, Terry Tempest Williams’ new book, Red: Passion and
Patience in the Desert, is small enough to fit easily
into your backpack, the one you might carry if you happened to be
taking a trip through, say, the redrock country of southern Utah.
The book’s size is no accident. A collection of essays, topo-maps,
newspaper clippings, journal entries, and congressional testimony,
Red is like a pocket guide for the wilderness activist with a
poetic bent. It’s a compelling meditation on the burnished deserts
of Utah, where Williams lives and writes. Beyond that, it’s a
useful resource. The appendix includes the text of the “Redrock
Wilderness Act of 2001,” and phone numbers for such conservation
groups as Great Old Broads for Wilderness.
Despite the hue of the book’s title, Williams’
prose in Red can tend towards the purple. But
what makes the book so satisfying is that as Williams juxtaposes
her musings on the erotic nature of the desert with excerpts from
the police blotter in a small town newspaper, she allows the
language of each text to enrich the others. Never before have I
read the findings of a congressional bill with such rapture.
Legislation rings with poetry, and a private moment in a steep
canyon is a moving testament to the importance of wilderness
preservation. Ultimately, Red is an attempt to
reconcile the divided West, through what Williams calls “the
language of Red.” She writes, “There is danger with red. Red is
rage is hot, too hot to touch … But to see red over time is to
understand its capacity to transform. White horses in our valley
eventually turn red.” If our region’s battles over land use are
usually fought in the political arena, fueled by angry rhetoric and
accusation, then Williams’ book offers a tantalizing alternative.
Red looks for a common language that might bring Westerners
together on a personal level, through their passion for the land.
Krissy Clark is production assistant for Radio High
Country News. To hear more about Red, head to www.hcn.org/radio.
Terry Tempest Williams reads from her book, and discusses the
redrock wilderness that inspired it, in a recent interview on Radio
High Country News.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Looking for the Language of Red.
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