The Kingdom in the Country - James Conaway

Welcome to the new Wild West: a vast, sprawling land of eternal hope and busted dreams, of grizzlies, dune buggies and range wars, dope growers, corporate bandits, ecotage and, yes, even gun-slinging. With grace and humor the author takes the reader along on an exhilarating land voyage from the Pecos River to the Pacific Northwest and south again to the Mexican border.... (Originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin) Jim Harrison (author of Legends of the Fall): "A wonderful and well-considered evocation of the New West, all the better because it reads like a fine novel." Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose): "He got into places and activities that most native Westerners never even get close to, and he reports them with verve, wit, irony, and a very sharp eye. He gives us, pretty much from the viewpoints of the antagonists, the battles between those who want to use the West, even to death, and those who want to preserve it... He makes abundantly clear that the myths of untrammeled freedom, space, and individualism unchecked by social responsibility thrive... A sound and very lively book." Tracey Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains): "This immensely entertaining book contains much more than fine writing about beautiful places. It is a portrait gallery of fascinating, characters, hilarious and sad, and... a meditation on the past and future of the 'World West.'"