Magdalena Mountain: A Novel

by Robert Michael Pyle

li>Beloved for his nature writing--specifically for his studies of butterflies--Robert Michael Pyle is an author with a wide and devoted following who have been looking forward to this novel for many years. His oldest fans (and new readers) with a fondness for the wild regions of the western states and the area's flora and fauna will delight in Magdalena Mountain Bob has been working on this book for a number of years and has been talking it up at workshops and symposia during that time. Many in the tight knit group of butterfly aficionados are aware of the book and eager for its release. A tireless self-promoter writer with a particularly strong following in the PacNW and Rocky Mountain states (especially among indie booksellers), Bob Pyle will tour extensively in both regions, and be available for bookstore, library, festival, nature clubs, and book club events Robert Pyle will be the 2018-19 Visiting Instructor at the Environmental Writing Institute at The University of Montana in Missoula, MT, and will also be a guest writer and featured speaker at the 2018 Montana Book Festival

Praise from Librarians and Booksellers

Pyle delivers a beautiful novel made stunning through his precise observations of the natural world. Fans of Claire-Louise Bennett will sink into the descriptive and captivating prose. Whether he's describing a Greyhound bus or the winter schedules of owls, Pyle will keep you entranced with his perfect imagery. Absolutely enchanting! --Laura Graveline, Brazos Bookstore (Houston, TX)

Genres: Fiction, Nature

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2018

About the author

Robert Michael Pyle is a lepidopterist and a professional writer who has published twelve books and hundreds of papers, essays, stories and poems. He has a Ph.D. from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He founded the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in 1974. His acclaimed 1987 book Wintergreen describing the devastation caused by unrestrained logging in Washington's Willapa Hills near his adopted home was the winner of the 1987 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing. His 1995 book Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide was the subject of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Butterflies, monks, students and teachers, prophets and saints: such is the cast of naturalist Robert Michael Pyle’s unusual and rewarding debut novel, Magdalena Mountain. It’s a golden autumn in the early 1970s as James Mead leaves Albuquerque on a Greyhound bus to travel to New Haven, Connecticut, where he will undertake a PhD in biology at Yale. He squats in a lab on campus to save money and, after some tension with his thesis advisor, decides to keep his head down, feeding the department’s giant cave roaches and becoming engrossed in the field journals written by one October Carson in 1969 during his travels out West.

Pyle presents nature as both beatific and harsh, a continuity of life that human events – like a car going over a cliff in the first chapter – barely disrupt. Occasional chapters check in on the woman who was in the car crash, Mary Glanville. Now suffering from amnesia, she believes she’s a famous figure from history. One day she escapes from her nursing home and hitchhikes into the Colorado mountains. In her weakened state she’s taken in by Attalus and Oberon, monks at a deconsecrated monastery devoted to the god Pan and the creeds of nature writers like John Burroughs, Aldo Leopold and John Muir. Attalus, a compassionless misogynist, vehemently protests Mary’s presence in their community, but Oberon soon falls in love with her.

When James, disobeying his supervisor, lights out for Colorado for a summer of research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, the stage is set for these major characters to collide on Magdalena Mountain, home to the distinctive, all-black Magdalena Alpine butterfly (Erebia magdalena). “Flight may appear weak, but adults are able to sail up and over huge boulders with the greatest of ease, eluding humans who desire a closer look. Flies in summer,” reads the description in my (Kaufman) field guide to North American butterflies. Intermittent segments of pure nature writing about Erebia’s life cycle – seven short chapters in total – establish the seasons and encourage a long view of local history, but somewhat slow down the novel’s tempo.

Pyle successfully pulls in so many different themes: academic infighting and the impulses of scientific researchers versus amateur collectors; environmentalism, especially through the threats that infestations, pesticides and off-road vehicles pose to the mountain landscape; activism, by way of the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons protests; and even sacred femininity and the myths surrounding Mary Magdalene. Mary Glanville’s name is a nice nod to history – Elinor Glanville was a seventeenth-century English collector who gave her name to the Glanville Fritillary – while Vladimir Nabokov, who was a keen lepidopterist as well as an academic and author, is mentioned several times for his real-life connections to the area.

The quirky set of hangers-on at the monastery reminded me of an Iris Murdoch setup (thinking mostly of The Bell), while the passion for science and activism brought to mind two other excellent environmentally minded novels published this year, The Overstory and Unsheltered. Indeed, Mary preaches at one point, “Seek your shelter in nature … In love lies the only real shelter there is.” If you’re interested in the Powers and/or Kingsolver, I would commend Pyle’s book to you as well: it’s offbeat, dreamy yet fervent, with intriguing characters and elegant nature-infused language. One of my favorite descriptive scraps, so simple but so apt, was “a peeled peach of a moon.” I’m grateful to have had a chance to read this, and I will be seeking out Pyle’s nature writing, too.

Originally published, with images, on my blog, Bookish Beck.

My thanks to the good folk of Counterpoint Press (based in Berkeley, California) for sending a free copy for review.

[Sam Youngblood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other reviews of this lovely novel seem quite harsh for what was a highly enjoyable read for me. I’m far from a master naturalist, but the descriptions of the mountain life and the stories about those who call it home, were absorbing. No spoilers here, but I do want to remember this sentence which has stuck with me: “In science and in letters, as in life itself, the rewarding course often proves to be the risky one, where the outcome is uncertain.” (page 157)

[Susan Beamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have many thoughts about this book. We read it for our book club, Mighty Mondays, a few months ago, and it has taken me this much longer to actually finish it. Two things I liked about it are the chapters about the Magdalena butterfly and the rather lyrical writing throughout the book. Otherwise, I am not pleased.
Bear with me here. We have a whole crew of characters. There is this guy who wanders around the Rocky Mountains catching butterflys for collectors and researchers. He also pretends to be a prospector for tourists to photograph. There is a woman who was in a one car accident that suffered a brain injury. She was put into a rest home and treated as if she were feeble-minded. She found out she could leave if she didn't tell anyone she was going, so she did. There is this graduate student who wants to do his PhD dissertation on butterflys, especially the Magdalena, only one of the people on his research panel doesn't like him. This person disapproves all his research requests, so he decides to go to Magdalena mountain anyway. The grad student is also curating some journals the butterfly hunter sent back with his butterflys. There are some monks, some other butterfly researcher driving around in an acid green van, assorted Park employees, semi-retired researchers and some women who want to join the monks at least for the winter. They are all running around the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
I am very much reminded of a farce or a Shakespearean comedy. Everybody winds around everybody else, all full of purpose but busy chasing butterflies. Everybody converges on the monastery in a final, climatic scene full of fuss and fury, signifying nothing. Happy endings all around, as you like it, on a Midsummer's Night. For me, if you remove everything except the butterfly sections I would have enjoyed it much better.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to do two ratings for this book. For the nature writing, 5 stars, lovely, lyric, and most informative. For the storyline, two stars. Too many themes, disjointed, flat dialogue, cliches, awkward metaphors, lack of subtlety. It just didn't come together smoothly for me. I would have been happier to read a book comprised solely of the nature pieces.

[Ash]

Absolutely stunning cover.

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know that Pyle is a widely respected scientist and writer - with impressive credentials and a long list of successful books to his name. However, this is his first novel and I found it awkward and contrived to fit what he really wanted to write about - which is butterflies. The chapters that described the natural world were beautiful and lyrical. However, the chapters that wove the “story” were laden with cliches and awkward dialogue. A good editor could have perhaps helped but each thread of the story was so predictable that it was almost painful to read. I might try another of Pyle’s books that stick with non-fiction and natural history because when he writes about what he knows and is obviously passionate about, the language is wonderful. This book had the potential to be good (think The Orchid Thief) but it wallows in trite cliches and an uninspired story line.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book hooked me from the beginning, got a bit messy in the middle, and had a good landing place/ending. This read as if it were a long stored away attempt at a first novel by a very young Pyle, now dusted off and completed.

[Steven Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an enjoyable and worthy first effort at fiction writing by an accomplished scientist and author of numerous nature-related books and field guides. He is an accomplished and well-known lepidopterist (butterfly specialist). I found this book to be a clever mixture of fiction along with a good bit of scientific and historical fact; and centers around the quest by a number of characters to find and observe a rare butterfly known as the Magdalena alpine found in the mountains of Colorado. It moves from the staid halls of Yale University to Denver mental facilities and on to mountain lodges and environmental enclaves near Rocky Mountain National Park. In the end, it turns out to be a feel good story although the author manages to infuse a number of clues as to his own personal stances on environmental issues and religious beliefs.

My only criticism or concern about this book is that may play only to a limited audience. Those readers who have not been exposed to the scientific jargon of entomology, geology, and botany; or the experience and politics of graduate school may find parts difficult to follow. However, a reader may come away with new knowledge or the impetus to learn more. This book certainly piqued my own interest in butterflies.

And I certainly did not know that Vladimir Nabokov, the author of "Lolita" and numerous other books, was also an accomplished lepidopterist.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pyle is a favorite author whose debut novel is definitely unusual. I had just finished David Quammen’s long treatise, Song of the Dodo, when I picked up Magdalena Mountain, which is full of references to the naturalists mentioned in Quammen’s book. I especially loved the chapters on Erebia magdalena. Pyle’s descriptive passages are mesmerizing. His vocabulary is pretty much over-the-top. You’ll need a dictionary. I wasn’t enamored of the “monks in the grove” episodes, but they brought the overall story together and connected the pieces. I’m picky about the novels I read and I had some misgivings at first. The audience for this book might not be huge, but Pyle fans, naturalists and butterfly folks will love it. Perhaps you'll hope, like I did, that October Carson is as real as he sounds. And, Bob, why couldn't Michael Heap be the real guy?

[Harve Lemelin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am familiar with the writings of Robert, and I am in awe of his activism, so I was quite excited when I heard that he had written a work of fiction. So I ordered it and started reading it, then I put it down on a number of occasions to read other novels. The novel exudes a profound knowledge and reverence of nature and that's to be expected from this author, I just found that this ode to entomological graduate studies took a long time to get to the denouement and a number of characters peripheral to the story line were not required. I'm also surprised that for a novel written in the 21st century, there is, apart from a few offhand comments "to the Natives before", very little acknowledgement of the Indigenous peoples and Indigenous names that were given to these regions, animals and mountains prior to European explorers.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I have read Robert Michael Pyle before and been impressed, but "Magdalena Mountain"; as Pyle's first fiction, reads like a career masterwork. "Wintergreen" and "Where Bigfoot Walks" were beautiful descriptive books of Pyle's adventures in the Northwest. Wonderful but "Magdalena" adds a story to frame all the nature, history and truth that Pyle can tell us.
The central characters of James Mead and the singular erebia magdalena are so compelling, and then there is Mary, or should we also say Maggie? Not the same or are they? Then there is Mary Magdalene, whose singular narrative in this book floored me. Confused? Just read this!

[Barbara Brydges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only a 3 as a novel, but definitely a 5 for nature writing, which I what Pyle is known for. I found the dialogue clunky and the characters rather wooden as individuals, although its a very believable portrayal of field naturalists as a group. I found myself longing to get back to either the chapters that were supposed to be October Carson’s journals about hunting butterflies in the Colorado Rockies, or those that detailed, in vivid and precise words, the day-to-day life of an Erebia Magdalena butterfly. As a paean to nature, this book is wonderful, but I think I’d enjoy one of Pyle’s many nature books more.

[Mary Keen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(paperback, not kindle edition)

I read this for a book club --may add to this after our discussion

Loved Pyle's beautiful writing style and also his deep knowledge of ecology and this area of the Rockies. Had to look up words several, so my vocabulary benefited too.

LIked the beginning and the ending sections, but tho't some sections needed an editor.

I could have done without all the sex and IMO quite graphic details.

If Mead's experience at Yale is typical of committees for grad students, then i have even more appreciation of their degree accomplishments.

[AJ Stoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book despite only giving it a few stars. The author is certainly to be admired for his Hands-On knowledge of butterflies and his descriptions of nature were well written. In those parts, the mountain and the butterfly become characters. Sadly the human parts were rife with stilted, almost comically bad dialog. Some characters, especially the villain, are wooden. And thus, it becomes near impossible to suspend disbelief. The search for the great butterfly hunter and the mystery of Mary kept me going but the ending seemed too convenient.

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pyle’s debut novel is compelling and quick read. Like his other writing, Pyle takes the reader on a journey deep into nature and here weaves in a narrative of Mary Magdalene, the biblical figure, and a butterfly with a shared name. Pyle is first a nature writer and this is supported beautifully throughout this book.

[BonLivre · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lush and lyrical naturalist prose. I enjoyed adventuring though the Colorado Rocky Mountains from the point of view of a Magdalena alpine butterfly. The parallel mystery plot held my attention. Science and fiction were well blended.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed after 50%. Loved the descriptions of my Colorado homeland and all the critters. Enjoyed October Carson's exploits. Lost me with Mary and the monastery/Pan. It was just a bit too over the top for me, so I didn't fully finish it.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/4 stars. It is tough to find fresh stories these days. A story the author makes as interesting as it seemed that wouldn't.

[Kay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such an interesting read, I liked it although I got lost in some of the description(a bit hard to follow at times) I didn't get bored. James was a cool character.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the moving between meed and the butterfly’s perspective. The book overall is a big uneven but the ending is satisfying enough

[Hollis Fishelson-holstine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great biology and description of Rocky’s but story silly

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really about a 3.5, or maybe a 3.6732; a lot of Gee-Whiz-ery, but the Colorado locations kept up my interest.

[Jennifer Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a somewhat generous rating. There were parts of this book I really liked, but it just didn’t some together for me and the end was fairly contrived.

[Karen Mcswain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pyle is a great nature writer, but he’s not a great novelist.

[Gabe Iversen]

DNF

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Magdalena Mountain by Robert Michael Pyle (Counterpoint Books 2018) (Fiction) (3517).

I received a free copy of this volume in 2018 in exchange for a review. I have just now gotten to this book in my reading pile; here is the review.

Author Robert Michael Pyle is a naturalist who has written a number of nonfiction books. This is his first published attempt at fiction. The results are mixed at best.

There are three separate Magdalena threads running throughout this tale. There is a woman called Mary who suffered a closed-head injury as the book opens, there is a mountain named Magdalena, and there is a butterfly of the same name which is only found high in the Rockies. Our intrepid naturalist-writer does his best to weave these three threads into a readable novel.

Perhaps the author would have been better served if he had limited his novel to one of these Magdalena threads rather than trying to tie all three together. In fact, my only criticism of this work is that, in this reader's opinion, the author introduced altogether too many characters and too many disparate plot threads to carry a coherent narrative to conclusion.

Several of the author's minor characters, subplots, and locations would have been sufficient to carry an entire novel. More than once the author introduced new characters or locations simply to have them disappear into the ether once the chapter ended whether or not they moved the narrative.

In short, I believe that this book would have greatly benefited from stringent editing.

I have no doubt that author Robert Michael Pyle is a beloved and highly acclaimed nature writer as stated on the Magdalena Mountain dust jacket. Perhaps a sharper pencil is all he needs to become a beloved and highly acclaimed novelist as well.

My rating: 6.75/10, finished 4/1/21 (3517). I own a brand-new PB copy which I received gratis from the author in 2018.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[H R Koelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am grateful to Counterpoint Press for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review. I am so grateful that I seriously considered not writing my review because I struggled to finish the book. I almost gave up on it several times.

I'm an educated and intelligent man, but RMP's antiquated writing style made reading it a great mental chore. I have a pretty extensive vocabulary, but I constantly found myself reaching for the dictionary to figure out what some new word (to me) meant. There's also a fair amount of scientific jargon but it's not overwhelming.

Have you ever read Moby Dick? If so, do you remember the interminable chapters about whale arcana? That's how I felt when I was reading some of the chapters from Erebia Magdalena's POV. It was just too detailed and too scientific for me.

Some of the dialogue was incredibly ponderous and dense. I kept thinking to myself, 'Who talks like this in real life?' I was reminded of 19th Century novels where protagonists discoursed in thoughtful soliloquies for pages on end.

I like RMP too much as a person, and respect his venerable position in the Lepidoptera community. Therefore I almost couldn't bring myself to publish a disfavorable review of his novel simply because it's something I personally disliked. It's a fine novel that I think academically and scientifically minded folks will enjoy, but the mental capacity and concentration required by your average MOTS and WOTS make this novel too difficult, ponderous, and inaccessible for the everyday reader.

I want to love this novel, but just can't. I wish the editors at Counterpoint had worked with RMP to tone down the vocabulary and make it a little less cerebral. Frank Zappa used to rail against the big corporate producers who wanted him to make music that had more, "Commercial Potential." I don't think RMP was visualizing this novel becoming a New York Times bestseller, but if the Counterpoint editors had reshaped this wonderful novel into something a little less erudite, it would be much easier to read.

As it stands, this novel is probably best enjoyed by a core group of RMP adherents, which is a shame because it touches on so many wonderful philosophical, religious, environmental, and emotional themes. No spoilers here, but the last words Mary speaks to close her part of the novel are exquisite, "In love lies the only real shelter there is." That said, I think RMP is a totally approachable and down to Earth kind of guy. But I feel this novel is overwritten, and therefore I couldn't find much shelter between its covers, or much to love.

As a side note, after finishing this novel I started reading another book with a more contemporary writing style. The words flowed through my mind so much faster and actually made me want to read more. It's quick and snappy and fun. RMP's writing style on the other hand, at least in Magdalena Mountain, occasionally left me with a headache.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pyle has written a lovely novel, combining his deep knowledge and love of the natural world with keen and witty observations on academics, and a rich set of characters. I enjoyed the complexity in the layering and structure, and the shifts between the peaceful and poetic observations of the butterflies, to the various story-lines of intrigue, love, and a rather wacky exploration of refugees from classical religion. Quite a bit for a first novel!

What I love most about Pyle's writing is the lovely depiction of landscapes, and the plants and animals that populate them. They are a genuine pleasure to read, and I found myself re-reading them to others just for the language. More than this however, they are an education, and I found myself also rereading to fix the names and relations of the various butterflies, mammals, etc. Imagine a textbook that you actually wanted to read and reread.

I have to wonder how much of the novel was autobiographical in some way, and appreciate the sense of knowing Pyle better for his depiction of graduate school, field work, and the passions of those who study natural history.

I found myself eager to go visit the place that is the novel's title and center-point, and was slightly disappointed (if not altogether surprised) that it does not exist. However, it still makes me want to explore more of the Rockies; if I do, it will be with a new set of eyes (and likely with a copy of this book in my pack).

(This is based upon an ARC I received from the publisher).

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the course of Robert Michael Pyle’s Magdalena Mountain, three characters undergo metamorphosis. For one, an Erebia magdalena butterfly, the metamorphosis is expected and follows the established course. For the other two, the humans, their metamorphoses become winding journeys as they work out who and where they are meant to be. But unlike other psychological portraits, this novel is written in a style I don’t often see anymore. Magdalena Mountain reads like something a nineteenth-century scientist would write, fully of evocative descriptions in a rich vocabulary and a tendency to teleology. This book will be a delight for readers who want novels in the tradition of Edward Abbey...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.

[Melissa]

I couldn't reach the summit of this mountain. It's beautifully written, but I didn't have the time to get through it.