If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir

A New Mexico Memoir #1

by John Nichols, William Davis (Photographer)

A celebration―in words and pictures―of one of the most beautiful areas of the United States: the Taos Valley of northern New Mexico. This eloquent, moving, and often funny book is his account of exactly how his life has been transformed by daily, intimate contact with this extraordinary landscape―at once hostile and nurturing―and by his growing sense of responsibility toward the land and the people who live there. Nichols writes with wry amusement about the joys and tribulations of living in an adobe farmhouse that is always at the mercy of nature. He is rapturous about the pleasures of trout fishing in mountain streams and graphic about the difficulties of maintaining a primitive, but vital irrigation system. But he is most passionate about his farmer neighbors and thier continuing struggle to prtect a rewarding way of life and a precariously balanced ecological system that are both increasingly threatened by overcrowding and human greed. To complement Nichols's deeply felt text, William Davis has provided sixty-five color photographs that dramatically capture the variety and intensity of this astonishing land―mountain and mesa, forest and desert, river and farmland―in all its seasons and moods. The result is a lyric tribute to one of the last truly wild areas of the United States.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

John Nichols is the author of the New Mexico trilogy, a series about the complex relationship between history, race and ethnicity, and land and water rights in the fictional Chamisaville County, New Mexico. The trilogy consists of The Milagro Beanfield War (which was adapted into the film The Milagro Beanfield War directed by Robert Redford), The Magic Journey, and The Nirvana Blues.

Two of his other novels have been made into films. The Wizard of Loneliness was published in 1966 and the film version with Lukas Haas was made in 1988. Another successful movie adaptation was of The Sterile Cuckoo, which was published in 1965 and was filmed by Alan J. Pakula in 1969.

Nichols has also written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa. John Nichols has lived in Taos, New Mexico for many years.

Reviews

[Berry Muhl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I borrowed it from my mother, and since we're both nature enthusiasts, I thought I might have a similar appreciation for it.

I can't recommend the writing. The author had published four novels, one fairly prominent, by the time he wrote this book. But his writing wandered in this one, shifting in tone frequently. There was a lot of autobiographical material, plenty of which I found fairly banal.

The worst aspects, for me, were those parts in which he put his ideology on display. He denounced the Vietnam war as an "imperialist, racist genocide." He admits to having hung out with Weathermen, including one woman who accidentally blew herself up (along with two others) in New York.

Consider this a decent coffee-table book. Enjoy the photos. Skim the chapters to get a sense of place. But don't bore yourself slaving over page after page after page of narrative.

[David Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book when I was petsitting a neighbor's cat--mainly because of the photographs accompanying the text. Then, I started to read John Nichol's text and was hooked--so hooked that I recently went to the library and borrowed the other two volumes making up his "New Mexico Memoir Trilogy." The book is the first book in the series written nine years after John Nichols left New York City and settled in Taos, New Mexico. It is the work of a passionate liberal much influenced by the radicalizing 1960s, so it must be read as a chronicle of the times. But the book also extols the virtues and disappointments of living in a beautiful but poor and gentrifying landscape. The text is accompanied by many large-scale color photographs of the landscape and details of the forests and streams of northern New Mexico.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reflection, in Nichols' words and William Davis' photographs, of Nichols' move to Taos from New York and his recreating of his life in the Taos Valley and its surrounding mountains and rivers and valleys in the 1970s. From social and political reflections - local and national and international - to his discovery of fly-fishing and farming, Nichols (and Davis' photos) paint a vibrant picture of the evolving life of one of our great writers.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite picture books of NM.

[Bram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very, very beautiful photographs