Red Line

by Charles Bowden

“At its best, Red Line can read like an original synthesis of Peter Matthiessen and William Burroughs . . . a brave and interesting book.”
—David Rieff, Los Angeles Times Book Review “Charles Bowden’s Red Line is a look at America through the window of the southwest. His vision is as nasty, peculiar, brutal, as it is intriguing and, perhaps, accurate. Bowden offers consciousness rather than consolation, but in order to do anything about our nightmares we must take a cold look and Red Line casts the coldest eye in recent memory.”
—Jim Harrison One of Charles Bowden’s earliest books,  Red Line  powerfully conveys a desert civilization careening over the edge―and decaying at its center. Bowden’s quest for the literal and figurative truth behind the assassination of a murderous border-town drug dealer becomes a meditation on the glories of the desert landscape, the squalors of the society that threatens it, and the contradictions inherent in trying to save it.

Genres: Environment

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Charles Bowden was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

His journalism appeared regularly in Harper’s GQ, and other national publications. He was the author of several books of nonfiction, including Down by the River.

In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to the roiling places that give such ideas the lie. He claimed as his turf "our soul history, the germinal material, vast and brooding, that is always left out of more orthodox (all of them) books about America" (Jim Harrison, on Blood Orchid ).

Reviews

[Joshua Turek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drunken melodramatic, sincere, sensuous writing of the 1980’s American Southwest undergoing its latest round of changes and devastations, and the personal terrors and isolative coping mechanisms of individuals both murderous and self inflicting in a Sonoran desert cut through by an artificial border and the violence still simmering along its unnatural line. I can’t believe there’s only 74 ratings of this book. People are going to discover Charles Bowden more and more his writing holds up and it’s punchy and juicy enough to be even more addictive than the Internet

[Christopher Jenness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book.

My reading through this book perfectly coincided with my eating of a jar of mixed-nut butter. As I rounded out the last chapter of Red Line, I opened the nut butter jar and threw away the lid.

I feel the last chapter is a good summary of how Bowden thinks and writes. I would start on that chapter to see if reading any of his work is something you would like.

Prior to this book, I most recently read Killing the Hidden Waters, which is the only book he attempts to explain himself. This was helpful for understanding his views on the American South West that pop up in all of his other books.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great re-read and another star this time around. Bowden is raw, rough, intelligent and in touch with the earth and reality. He basically "tells it like it is" and holds nothing back.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book very much had the experience of an adrenaline charged fever dream. The author Bowden was all over the place discussing a variety of topics sometimes on the same page. For example on page 135 Bowden muses about lying on the floor of a cheap dingy Bay Area (California) apartment with his belly full of Zinfandel a wine grape invented by a Hungarian as the only unique American wine that was created by a man later eaten by Crocodiles in Panama. Now that is a powerful three lines of What the Fuck. Later he is talking to a developer who says: “Hey did I tell you the one about the guys wife who was acting funny? So the husband takes her to the doctor and the doc tells him well she either has Alzheimer’s or AIDS. The husband says Christ what should I do Doc? So the Doc tells him well on your way home drop her off about 5 miles from your house. If she makes it home. . . l don’t fuck her. Hysterical and a perfect note of how funny and profane this book is throughout. I am very much a convert of Bowden’s writing even when he can be a bit pedantic and preachy which I despise. This is a fun read and full of amusing anecdotes.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I put this on my "to read" when I was reading Edward Abbey. A hard read - and hard to describe. A kind of "memoir" of the Southwest and Northern Mexico - brutal. Pretty relevant to current events.

[Lee Kimball · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars (Pretty Good+) much of the author’s writing is lovely, it’s prose poetic and ambling but the many disparate stories blur together sometimes. I preferred his more tightly woven work in “Murder City” but you can certainly hear the beginnings of finding his voice in this piece.

[David Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I have read Bowden. Enjoyable mash up of true crime, travelogue, and gonzo journalism without the narcissistic ego. His sparse words paint gloriously detailed pictures.

[あしずり アート · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gonzo journalism, disjointed but honest and appealing. Reading this you get a sense of where the US has been heading all this time.