Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions

by Bruce Barcott

In this vibrant anthology about the region and its people, editor Bruce Barcott endeavors to define the literary soul of the Northwest. Spanning two hundred years, Northwest Passages brings together writing from such natives, notables, and newcomers as Chief Seattle, Rudyard Kipling, Jack Kerouac and Sherman Alexie.

Genres: Anthologies

329 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Bruce Barcott is an American editor, environmental journalist and author. He is a contributing editor of Outside and has written articles for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Mother Jones, Sports Illustrated, Harper's Magazine, Legal Affairs, Utne Reader and others. He has also written a number of books including, The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier (1997) and The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird (2008). In 2009 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about this via Barcott's Measure of a Mountain, about Mt. Rainier. As he notes in his preface to this 1994 anthology, the Pacific Northwest tends to be marginalized by the literati and East Coasters. It's written off as spotted owl loonies, backwoods hicks, tattooed clans, and reclusive hippie potheads.

Coming from L.A. myself, if that megapolis continues to be stereotyped and reduced to Hollywood or coastal cliches of sun-baked airheads, the PNW suffers as an asylum filled with taciturn natives with and without a capital letter. Huddled amidst rain, fog, and a natural stretch attracting immigrants while repelling those who can't handle a wet winter. Reading this collection after nearly a third-of-a-century, I wonder how the logging, population growth (Jonathan Raban sadly documents the late-1980s destruction of Seattle, and that's before most of Microsoft, prior to Amazon, Costco, and their high-tech bros stomped among the grunge, hipster and other supposedly non-conformist hordes), blue-state shifters, and those red-staters resisting the incursions into these heartlands keep faring.

Barcott reasons, although others on Goodreads have criticized this, that including those who've not been born or at least raised here gives a better range of reactions to the varied cultures, trends, fads, and propaganda (Wobblies, Oregon or Bust pioneers, evangelical nutcases, Beats, profs, tree huggers) which compel millions, as in Canada, the West, and for that matter the rest of the U.S. nowadays, to move into the sylvan slopes and verdant valleys. Even as they lament the loss of timber and the rise of subdivisions, as John Steinbeck did in his Travels with Charley going on two-thirds of a century past, when he couldn't recognize the lowslung, modest Seattle of the Depression, anymore than my father-in-law (who went to the same high school as Jimi Hendrix would quite a few classes on), would've.

For they like many come and go. Raymond Carter captures this well in his "Boxes." Those who tried to establish the first colony on the Pacific up there (see my review of Peter Stark, Astoria) didn't succeed.

The climate drove its indigenous inhabitants indoors too, unlike the nations of the Plains. In vast longhouses, they turned towards totems, brooding figures, and with tales passed down of an ancient Great Flood. I wish Barrett had found a version to illustrate this, by the by. He does cover Idaho, but not Montana, argue the latter doesn't sustain the legends of the wetter landscape. But the sparser territory of the other side of the Cascades doesn't get much notice, and the bulk, being after all where the peoples from whichever origin tend to land, tilts towards the ocean rather than peers inland, same as with California. The contents veer wildly, with a lot of second rate at best prose and poetry, but it's representative of the many registers of what then as now's deemed marketable irrespective of its inherent worth. So, less the cream than the dregs swirling up from the scribbling crop. For this blend, and the clever if inevitable title he's snagged against all comers, a useful compendium from its era.

I'd consult Powell's City of Books for a sampler of what's come out from these parts since. Allowing for their staff's strenuously eclectic and self-consciously sensitive slant. But the steady shifts towards favoring fringe constituencies, small-press voices, and radical proponents themselves typify the savvy appeal of a restive strain, in more than one sense, which Barcott tracks from a hundred years ago, as a similar championing of ragged and/or upright holdouts to the power of a dominant system of capital.

P.S. Why aren't maps included in books more? One showing where each entry took place would have graced this well, and increased comprehension of a region where the smaller burgs and little rivers aren't familiar probably to audiences even of those raised in these states. However, his introductions to the pieces tend towards insight, and anyone closing this will have compiled a to-read-next listicle.

[Amory Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling look at the way much of our storytelling about the PNW has been shaped by early European explorers, and the problematic issues facing their perspective in modern day. It exposes much of the one-sidedness of literary accounts from those times.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have previewed this before I picked it up. I was expecting articles about places to visit in the NW. Instead it was articles dating back to the earliest inhabitants of this area up until the present. Though interesting, again, not what I was looking for. Dnf.

[Lydia Bashaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful anthology of PacNW stories, both fictional and nonfiction. I am in love with the depth and width of this book's collection.

[Wendy Feltham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I don't like anthologies that much in general, and I found the excerpts too short in most cases in this anthology. However, Northwest Passages does provide a good historical perspective on the development of the Pacific Northwest, especially the evolution of consciousness about nature, at least for some people. I appreciated small tastes of some writers I wouldn't pursue further, and an introduction to a few that I will, including No-no Boy by John Okada. It's fascinating that so many writers popped into this region-- Washington Irving, Rudyard Kipling, Daniel Defoe, and John Muir to name a few.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barcott, Bruce, ed. 1994. Northwest passages: a literary anthology of the Pacific Northwest from coyote tales to roadside attractions. Sasquatch Books, Seattle, WA. (Purchased ABe Books. $6.92, 11/08/2008)
ISBN: 1-57061-005-3

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read selections of this for class, and I wouldn't recommend it for fun reading. I even suggested to the teacher that he try a new book next time he does the class, because I just didn't feel that it gave a good overview of the Pacific Northwest.