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Badluck Way: A Year On The Ragged Edge Of The West (2014)

by Bryce Andrews(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

147671083X (ISBN13: 9781476710839)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Atria Books

review 1: The title has nothing to do with Bryce Andrews' luck, in fact I think his year's experience working on the 18,000 acre Sun Ranch in Montana was pretty marvelous. But a federal government regulation, the Postal Service's requirement that all those nameless private ranch roads be named, inspired Roger, the Sun Ranch owner, to choose the name of a nearby creek coming from a small canyon that had been named in the rather joking manner of cowboys many years past. And the story of that naming deals with the ways wildlife can surprise us, throw us off balance. Western ranchers today, especially those with such vast lands at the base of great mountains and just below designated wilderness, are squeezed between laws that reflect the interests and sentiments of many Americans an... mored traditional ranching lifestyle and values. The law and those values clash when wolves begin hunting the ranges again. I could really identify and sympathize with Bryce, who seems like such a quiet, confident, skilled young man. I'm familiar with the Madison Valley, at least from having driven the highway through the valley and along the Madison Mountains many times. He describes the natural beauty and the harsh work beautifully and accurately. He really appreciates all the animals, domestic and wild, respects them and wants them to enjoy their lives. Like him, I've walked along the Madison River just inside the boundary of Yellowstone Park and wondered at the hundreds of scattered white elk bones and carcass remains along its banks. My experience there was long before the wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone and so quickly thrived and spread widely. Most Americans love the idea of the wolf free and wild, and Yellowstone has more visitors now who hope to spot a wolf than ones who want to see a geyser. But wolves do what they have to do to live, and within careful government regulation, ranchers deal with them. Bryce was very conflicted in his experiences, not just with the wolves and other predators, but with how ranches with so much habitat can be preserved and still be ranches. There is no preaching or formula answers, just lovely description of his experiences and calm reflection. The ending is a mix of good and bad news, like so much of the modern world trying to deal with the wild world. (But why oh why did the publisher choose for the cover a stock picture of the Bridger Mountains instead of the Madisons? And yes, I know authors have no control over that).
review 2: If you were to ask me to tell you my favorite genre, I don't think I would usually say, "I love books about real-life ranching and Montana wolf preservation issues. Give me some barbed-wire tales before I drift off to sleep!" THAT SAID, I really loved going to sleep with visions of hard physical labor and cows and wolf scat. Bryce told a very compelling story and illustrated a way of living that is different than my own. less

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