Across the High Lonesome

by James McNay Brumfield

Across the High Lonesome is a modern western odyssey that invites the reader to hitch a ride through the glacial carved vales and over the high lonesome passes of California's -Range of Light.+ A journey of love, pain and adventure, brimming with unforgettable characters, salty humor, and recalcitrant mules. Brumfield has taken a lifetime of experience packing dudes into the mountains and distilled it into a delightful work of fiction.

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hard to get into. The author is very descriptive of the back country packing process and high country which can be good to have a picture in the reader's head, but also tough to read when you want the story to take over. Once I did get into it, I didn't want it to end. I passed in on to my mother and the book physically fell apart while she was reading it, so be careful.

[Kara Jorges · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s easy to see why Brumfield was compelled to write this novel about mule packers in eastern California when you read his credentials in the back of the book. After 25 years as a wilderness guide and packer, Brumfield brought a little-known industry he loves to light. It’s hard to categorize this book: part western, part romance, part tragedy, and all drama set in the mountainous national forests of California. Brumfield packs years worth of stories into one summer at Granite Creek Pack Station with its romances and tawdry affairs, and triumphs and tragedies among an eclectic cast of characters whose love of the wilderness ties them all together.

Molly Mendoza is at a crossroads in her life. After discovering her fiancé in bed with her best friend, the perfect life she had planned is swept away, leaving her future exhilaratingly uncertain. On a whim, she accepts a summer job as a backcountry cook for Granite Creek and finds herself tossed headfirst in with the gang. She soon finds that Don Davidson, the handsome and charming man who hired her, is not well liked for good reason, while she finds her dislike for packer Dwight Broussard turning to not only passion but a close connection that frightens them both. Dwight had never taken anything in life too seriously, even through long and difficult winters, but he’s starting to realize he may need a long-term plan and he might want Molly around past the end of the summer. The book also delves to a lesser degree into the lives of Molly and Dwight’s compatriots as the summer plods along through the mountains.

As the book lacks a central thread to tie everything together, it reads like a series of short stories. Readers of “A Tourist in the Yucatan” (which Brumfield slyly and amusingly promotes several times throughout this novel) who were looking for another thriller may be disappointed that he didn’t take the opportunity to centralize the stories going on around some sort of nefarious plot, but I appreciate all kinds of novels and understand why that might have destroyed the book’s purity of purpose. I got the feeling that both Jake and Dwight were both semiautobiographical characters representing different periods in the author’s life, as well as the other characters representing traits of people he has met along the way. The book’s greatest value is what I think it was intended to do: shine a light on the lives of people who choose a physically demanding lifestyle over materialism for the sheer joy of being in the midst of one of the few wild places left in our country. While the writing is a bit stilted at times, the author somewhat uncomfortable with using contractions, the characters nonetheless came to life. I cared about what happened to most of them and felt their pain. I also felt like I learned about a different slice of life, and I’m glad Brumfield opened up this corner of the world for us to see. Perhaps now that this labor of love is under his belt, one of Brumfield’s future novels can combine his love of the mountains with the thriller-writing abilities he displayed in “Tourist.” Whatever he publishes next will be worth reading.

[Tina]

Here's another book that I had sitting on my shelf for awhile...I must be in a more laid back space then the past few weeks..I am enjoying reading again..sometimes all those chores get in the way!
This reminds me of "Walden Pond" in the fact of " I wish I was there"....how beautiful the Sierras must have been back then, untouched by developments and hoards of people. They are still beautiful, of course, but you have to go aways in not to run into anybody!!

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Best part of the book is the title. The life of a backcountry guide and mule packing station should be interesting, and the author tries really hard to show that. Problem is, he is a better guide than wordsmith!