""Trespass" might as well be "Desert Solitaire"'s literary heir . . . It's hard to imagine a personal history more transporting that this one."--Judith Lewis, "Los Angels Times Book Review " "Trespass" is the story of one woman's struggle to gain footing in inhospitable territory. A wilderness activist and apostate Mormon, Amy Irvine sought respite in the desert outback of southern Utah's red-rock country after her father's suicide, only to find out just how much of an interloper she was among her own people. But more than simply an exploration of personal loss, "Trespass" is an elegy for a dying world, for the ruin of one of our most beloved and unique desert landscapes and for our vanishing connection to it. Fearing what her father's fate might somehow portend for her, Irvine retreated into the remote recesses of the Colorado Plateau--home not only to the world's most renowned national parks but also to a rugged brand of cowboy Mormonism that stands in defiant contrast to the world at large. Her story is one of ruin and restoration, of learning to live among people who fear the wilderness the way they fear the devil and how that fear fuels an antagonism toward environmental concerns that pervades the region. At the same time, Irvine mourns her own loss of wildness and disconnection from spirituality, while ultimately discovering that the provinces of nature and faith are not as distinct as she once might have believed.
Formerly a nationally ranked competitive rock climber, Amy Irvine was for five years the Development Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Winner of the Orion Book Award A wilderness activist and apostate Mormon, Amy Irvine sought respite in the desert outback of southern Utah's red-rock country after her father's suicide, only to find that she was more of an interloper among her own people than she believed. But more than an exploration of personal loss, "Trespass" is an elegy for the ruin of one of our most beloved and unique desert landscapes and for our vanishing connection to it.
Fearing what her father's fate might somehow portend for her, Irvine retreated into the remote recesses of the Colorado Plateau--home not only to the world's most renowned national parks but also to a rugged brand of cowboy Mormonism that stands in defiant contrast to the world at large. Her story is one of ruin and restoration, of learning to live among people who fear the wilderness the way they fear the devil and how that fear fuels an antagonism toward environmental concerns that pervades the region. At the same time, Irvine mourns her own loss of wildness and disconnection from spirituality, ultimately discovering that the provinces of nature and faith are not as distinct as she once might have believed. "As raw and stinging as a fresh burn . . . It's hard to imagine a personal history more transporting than this one, with its rigorously original prose (not a single cliche in 300-plus pages), emotional detail and bibliophilic departures into the musty caverns of American history."--"Los Angeles Times" "As raw and stinging as a fresh burn . . . It's hard to imagine a personal history more transporting than this one, with its rigorously original prose (not a single cliche in 300-plus pages), emotional detail and bibliophilic departures into the musty caverns of American history."--"Los Angeles Times
"" Irvine] braids together threads of Mormon history, her own family's stories and her quest for illumination, creating a singularly elegiac and astringent memoir of dissent."--"Chicago"" Tribune
""Southern Utah's mesmerizing landscape of rock, river and ruins has inspired at least one masterpiece, Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire," which provides Amy Irvine with the epigraph for her fierce memoir, "Trespass": 'Beware traveler. You are approaching the land of horned gods.' 'Beware' is the key word. Although there aren't many occupants of this beautiful but isolated area, most of them consider Abbey's pro-environment, anti-cattle ideas extreme. Irvine, who had worked for a key Southern Utah environmental advocacy group, seemingly understood what she was in for when she moved from Salt Lake City to Monticello, a small town in the heart of the region, to recover from her father's suicide and to be closer to her 'lion man, ' an environmental attorney. She thought she might encounter hostility, but believed that her Mormon background, lapsed though she was, and the hunting skills she learned from her father would provide her with cover. Her friends were rightly skeptical. How much do the locals hate environmental advocates? A popular window decal shows the cartoon character Calvin 'urinating on the acronym of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, ' Irvine's employer. Irvine's attempt to fit in, as well as to enjoy and protect the beauty of canyon country, is the most vivid ground-level report from this war zone that I have ever read . . . What lifts "Trespass" beyond polemic and personal suffering is its structure. The book is divided into sections named for the periods of early habitation of the Southwest: Lithic, Archaic, Basketmaker, Pueblo. The narrative skips back and forth from the author's own history to those of the Mormon pioneers and the earliest natives. This gives Irvine the chance to compare coyotes, despised as predators by ranchers, to the polygamist Mormons of the 19th century, who were 'truly coyotelike in their survival skills' and who claimed virtually the same habitat. She argues that early hunter-gatherers damaged the fragile land less than did the later agricultural Anasazi (the architects of wondrous places such as Mesa Verde), whom she describes as descending into decadent, over-populous cults and cannibalism. Similarly, Irvine suggests, contemporary culture is trying the patience of Mother Nature. During the recent drought, Lake Powell, the artificial reservoir that drowned the majestic Glen Canyon and then became a boating haven for families
Industry Reviews
"Fierce . . . The most vivid ground-level report from this war zone that I have ever read." --Grace Litchtenstein, The Washington Post
"Bold and original in her thinking, candid and lyrical in expression, Irvine launches a penetrating critique of Mormon sovereignty, the persistent oppression of women, the longing to belong versus the need to be one's self, and the environmental havoc wrought by cattle ranching, 'extreme recreationists' and the federally sanctioned, post-9/11 rush to extract fossil fuels from protected public lands . . . [She] joins red-rock heroes Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams in breaking ranks and speaking up for the living world." --Booklist (starred review)
"A distinctive, affecting meditation on loss--an amalgam of personal history, natural history, and a search for spirituality . . . in unexpected places." --More
"Brilliant." --Charles Bowden
"A singularly elegiac and astringent memoir of dissent." --Donna Seaman, Chicago Tribune
"A transformative memoir." --Terry Tempest Williams Fierce . . . The most vivid ground-level report from this war zone that I have ever read. "Grace Litchtenstein, The Washington Post"
Bold and original in her thinking, candid and lyrical in expression, Irvine launches a penetrating critique of Mormon sovereignty, the persistent oppression of women, the longing to belong versus the need to be one's self, and the environmental havoc wrought by cattle ranching, extreme recreationists' and the federally sanctioned, post-9/11 rush to extract fossil fuels from protected public lands . . . [She] joins red-rock heroes Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams in breaking ranks and speaking up for the living world. "Booklist (starred review)"
A distinctive, affecting meditation on loss--an amalgam of personal history, natural history, and a search for spirituality . . . in unexpected places. "More"
Brilliant. "Charles Bowden"
A singularly elegiac and astringent memoir of dissent. "Donna Seaman, Chicago Tribune"
A transformative memoir. "Terry Tempest Williams"" "Fierce . . . The most vivid ground-level report from this war zone that I have ever read." --Grace Litchtenstein, "The Washington Post ""Bold and original in her thinking, candid and lyrical in expression, Irvine launches a penetrating critique of Mormon sovereignty, the persistent oppression of women, the longing to belong versus the need to be one's self, and the environmental havoc wrought by cattle ranching, 'extreme recreationists' and the federally sanctioned, post-9/11 rush to extract fossil fuels from protected public lands . . . [She] joins red-rock heroes Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams in breaking ranks and speaking up for the living world." --"Booklist "(starred review)
"A distinctive, affecting meditation on loss--an amalgam of personal history, natural history, and a search for spirituality . . . in unexpected places." --"More
""Brilliant." --Charles Bowden "A singularly elegiac and astringent memoir of dissent." --Donna Seaman, "Chicago Tribune
"
"A transformative memoir." --Terry Tempest Williams "Fierce . . . The most vivid ground-level report from this war zone that I have ever read." -Grace Litchtenstein, "The Washington Post ""Bold and original in her thinking, candid and lyrical in expression, Irvine launches a penetrating critique of Mormon sovereignty, the persistent oppression of women, the longing to belong versus the need to be one's self, and the environmental havoc wrought by cattle ranching, 'extreme recreationists' and the federally sanctioned, post-9/11 rush to extract fossil fuels from protected public lands . . . [She] joins red-rock heroes Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams in breaking ranks and speaking up for the living world." -"Booklist "(starred review)
"A distinctive, affecting meditation on loss-an amalgam of personal history, natural history, and a search for spirituality . . . in unexpected places." -"More
""Brilliant." -Charles Bowden &# ""Trespass" is the story of one woman's escape: from the Mormon Church, from her father's demons, from her own self-sabotage. Irvine's take on early Native Americans in the Southwest and hunter gathering as a way of life is extraordinary and original, as is the way she uses these thoughts to better understand her own place in the world. "Trespass" is also a tangled, fevered, ambivalent love story--the true kind." --Nora Gallagher, author of "Changing Light" and "Things Seen and Unseen"
""Trespass" is a flare shot up amid troubling forces and asks us not to imagine a new West, but instead to re-envision ourselves as its inhabitants." --Robert Redford
""Trespass" is a book full of transgressions because Amy Irvine has dared to examine the nature of orthodoxy, be it religion, environmentalism, or marriage. What saves this book from simply becoming an indulgence is her fidelity and love for all things beautiful and broken, especially the redrock desert of southern Utah. If erosion is the face of a changing landscape, Amy Irving has written erosional prose. This is a transformative memoir that dances between shadow and light." --Terry Tempest Williams, author of "Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place" and "Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert"
"The most lingering, destructive myth to come out of the American West has been the notion that sense of place is somehow derived from fierce independence. Amy Irvine knows better. Her beautiful prose, infused with the staggering breadth and texture of the Southwestern landscape, reminds us that home is a hunger. It is the hope for a life re-imagined, for relationships that stretch across centuries, full of tangle andsweat and heartbreaking possibility."--Gary Ferguson, author of "Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone" and" The Great Divide: A Biography of the American West"
"Amy's writing is designed in the image of a landscape: desert writing, writing about bones and wind and stone. Some people try to write about this country, but their words are only dry and austere, as if that is all that is here. Amy's words truly dwell here. They deal as poetically with her father's suicide as they deal with facets of weather, with the myriad details of archaeology, geology, botany. This is not a natural history book in any common sense. It has the rhythm of arid writing: passing steadily from place to place, quick and then slow, here and then there. And it has the personal richness of a land where the rocks are made of blood." --Craig Childs, author of "Secret Knowledge of Water"
"Amy Irvine's "Trespass" is a harrowing and angry book, which ultimately wins us over by sheer, naked honesty. It is accurate to think of much of life in terms of damage control and Irvine eloquently presents her defense of the western landscape and the integrality of her own life."--Jim Harrison, author of "Legends of the Fall"
"There is heartbreak and there is love. The land can do that. There are the canyons gouged between the people who share the land. And there is writing as warm and harsh as the ground that birthed it. Amy Irvine has written a brilliant book about a place beyond our reach but within our dreams."--Charles Bowden, author of "Blood Orchid" "The most lingering, destructive myth to come out of the American West has been the notion that sense of place is somehow derived from fierce independence. Amy Irvine knows better. Her beautiful prose, infused with the staggering breadth and texture of the Southwestern landscape, reminds us that home is a hunger. It is the hope for a life re-imagined, for relationships that stretch across centuries, full of tangle and sweat and heartbreaking possibility."--Gary Ferguson, author of "Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone" and" The Great Divide: A Biography of the American West"
"Amy's writing is designed in the image of a landscape: desert writing, writing about bones and wind and stone. Some people try to write about this country, but their words are only dry and austere, as if that is all that is here. Amy's words truly dwell here. They deal as poetically with her father's suicide as they deal with facets of weather, with the myriad details of archaeology, geology, botany. This is not a natural history book in any common sense. It has the rhythm of arid writing: passing steadily from place to place, quick and then slow, here and then there. And it has the personal richness of a land where the rocks are made of blood." --Craig Childs, author of "Secret Knowledge of Water"
"Amy Irvine's "Trespass" is a harrowing and angry book, which ultimately wins us over by sheer, naked honesty. It is accurate to think of much of life in terms of damage control and Irvine eloquently presents her defense of the western landscape and the integrality of her own life."--Jim Harrison, author of "Legends of the Fall"
"There is heartbreak and there is love. The landcan do that. There are the canyons gouged between the people who share the land. And there is writing as warm and harsh as the ground that birthed it. Amy Irvine has written a brilliant book about a place beyond our reach but within our dreams."--Charles Bowden, author of "Blood Orchid" "There is heartbreak and there is love. The land can do that. There are the canyons gouged between the people who share the land. And there is writing as warm and harsh as the ground that birthed it. Amy Irvine has written a brilliant book about a place beyond our reach but within our dreams."--Charles Bowden "Amy's writing is designed in the image of a landscape: desert writing,
writing about bones and wind and stone. Some people try to write about this country, but their words are only dry and austere, as if that is all that is here. Amy's words truly dwell here. They deal as poetically with her father's suicide as they deal with facets of weather, with the myriad details of archaeology, geology, botany. This is not a natural history book in any common sense. It has the rhythm of arid writing: passing steadily from place to place, quick and then slow, here and then there. And it has the personal richness of a land where the rocks are made of blood."--Craig Childs, author of "S""e""cr""e""t Knowl""e""dg""e"" of Wat""e""r" "Amy's writing is designed in the image of a landscape: desert writing,
writing about bones and wind and stone. Some people try to write about this country, but their words are only dry and austere, as if that is all that is here. Amy's words truly dwell here. They deal as poetically with her father's suicide as they deal with facets of weather, with the myriad details of archaeology, geology, botany. This is not a natural history book in any common sense. It has the rhythm of arid writing: passing steadily from place to place, quick and then slow, here and then there. And it has the personal richness of a land where the rocks are made of blood."--Craig Childs, author of "S""e""cr""e""t Knowl""e""dg""e"" of Wat""e""r" " Amy's writing is designed in the image of a landscape: desert writing,
writing about bones and wind and stone. Some people try to write about this country, but their words are only dry and austere, as if that is all that is here. Amy's words truly dwell here. They deal as poetically with her father's suicide as they deal with facets of weather, with the myriad details of archaeology, geology, botany. This is not a natural history book in any common sense. It has the rhythm of arid writing: passing steadily from place to place, quick and then slow, here and then there. And it has the personal richness of a land where the rocks are made of blood. " -- Craig Childs, author of S e cr e t Knowl e dg e of Wat e r
