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Yuck: The Birth & Death of the Weird & Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca Brevifolia
"YUCK is a prismatic collage, a poetic wandering, a compact history of the West as twisted and weird and ominous and beautiful as the plant it obsesses over. From divine providence to gaseous landfill to Instagram paradise, Yuck deftly traces the modern history of a small patch of desert to leave us with a big warning about America's demented relationship with the land. Baumgart's brief book will turn your Joshua Tree vacation into a terrifying revelation and so should be required reading at the gates of the national park. (Joshua Wheeler, author of Acid West and The High Heaven)
"Barret Baumgart's appropriately tangled and marvelous ode to the Joshua tree-part poetry, part cultural history, part confrontation with a Mojave mystery-deftly honors one of the Southwest's most compelling and symbolically rich inhabitants. It also confirms Baumgart's status as one of the leading chroniclers of the California weird. (Erik Davis, author of High Weirdness)
"Baumgart's ecstatic prose turns the Joshua Tree into a mind-expanding mirror. Propulsive, poetic, sobering... YUCK is an unforgettable read. (Jesús Castillo, author of Two Murals)
"YUCK invites us to encounter the Joshua tree as an elegiac symbol and warning. A captivating and urgent contemplation of the ecology, capitalism, and history of Los Angeles. Fascinating, ingenious." (Tyler Mills, author of The Bomb Cloud)
"YUCK is part tract or pamphlet, part prose poem, an uncomfortable yet entertaining meditation on California and nature in the tradition of both Robinson Jeffers and Mike Davis. Anyone who has visited the Joshua Trees in the Mojave Desert, anyone who lives in the Golden State or in the West, will want to read this natural history of yucca trees--'with their grotesque arms like monsters in pain . . . stranded in tortured frenzy'--that is also a brief unnatural history of what we have done to the place where they grow." (A. S. Hamrah, author of The Earth Dies Film Writing, 2002-2018)
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
"Barret Baumgart's appropriately tangled and marvelous ode to the Joshua tree-part poetry, part cultural history, part confrontation with a Mojave mystery-deftly honors one of the Southwest's most compelling and symbolically rich inhabitants. It also confirms Baumgart's status as one of the leading chroniclers of the California weird. (Erik Davis, author of High Weirdness)
"Baumgart's ecstatic prose turns the Joshua Tree into a mind-expanding mirror. Propulsive, poetic, sobering... YUCK is an unforgettable read. (Jesús Castillo, author of Two Murals)
"YUCK invites us to encounter the Joshua tree as an elegiac symbol and warning. A captivating and urgent contemplation of the ecology, capitalism, and history of Los Angeles. Fascinating, ingenious." (Tyler Mills, author of The Bomb Cloud)
"YUCK is part tract or pamphlet, part prose poem, an uncomfortable yet entertaining meditation on California and nature in the tradition of both Robinson Jeffers and Mike Davis. Anyone who has visited the Joshua Trees in the Mojave Desert, anyone who lives in the Golden State or in the West, will want to read this natural history of yucca trees--'with their grotesque arms like monsters in pain . . . stranded in tortured frenzy'--that is also a brief unnatural history of what we have done to the place where they grow." (A. S. Hamrah, author of The Earth Dies Film Writing, 2002-2018)
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Audible Audio
Published March 25, 2025
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About the author
Barret Baumgart
3 books10 followersWEIRD NONFICTION
❝🇨🇭🇮🇳🇦 🇱🇦🇰🇪 🇮🇸 🇦🇳 🇦🇵🇴🇨🇦🇱🇾🇵🇸🇪 🇴🇫 🇹🇭🇪 🇼🇪🇮🇷🇩❝ --🇷🇮🇨🇭🇦🇷🇩 🇵🇷🇪🇸🇹🇴🇳
“ʏᴜᴄᴋ ᴄᴏɴꜰɪʀᴍꜱ ʙᴀᴜᴍɢᴀʀᴛ’ꜱ ꜱᴛᴀᴛᴜꜱ ᴀꜱ ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ ᴄʜʀᴏɴɪᴄʟᴇʀꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʟɪꜰᴏʀɴɪᴀ ᴡᴇɪʀᴅ.” --ᴇʀɪᴋ ᴅᴀᴠɪꜱ
Barret Baumgart is an essayist, screenwriter, and the author of the nonfiction books China Lake and YUCK. His essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, Vice, LitHub, The Seneca Review, and The Literary Review, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.
❝🇨🇭🇮🇳🇦 🇱🇦🇰🇪 🇮🇸 🇦🇳 🇦🇵🇴🇨🇦🇱🇾🇵🇸🇪 🇴🇫 🇹🇭🇪 🇼🇪🇮🇷🇩❝ --🇷🇮🇨🇭🇦🇷🇩 🇵🇷🇪🇸🇹🇴🇳
“ʏᴜᴄᴋ ᴄᴏɴꜰɪʀᴍꜱ ʙᴀᴜᴍɢᴀʀᴛ’ꜱ ꜱᴛᴀᴛᴜꜱ ᴀꜱ ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ ᴄʜʀᴏɴɪᴄʟᴇʀꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʟɪꜰᴏʀɴɪᴀ ᴡᴇɪʀᴅ.” --ᴇʀɪᴋ ᴅᴀᴠɪꜱ
Barret Baumgart is an essayist, screenwriter, and the author of the nonfiction books China Lake and YUCK. His essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, Vice, LitHub, The Seneca Review, and The Literary Review, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.
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