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The Charles Bowden Reader
“I will make bold to say that Bowden is America’s most alarming writer. Just when you think you’ve heard it all you learn you haven’t in the most pungent manner possible. . . . With The Charles Bowden Reader in hand you get a taste of it all, and any literate resident or visitor should want this book. It will lead them back to a close, alarming reading of the entire oeuvre. It is to ride in a Ferrari without brakes. There’s lots of oxygen but no safe way to stop. . . . Read him at your risk. You have nothing to lose but your worthless convictions about how things are.” ―Jim Harrison, from the foreword From his first book, Killing the Hidden Waters, to his most recent, Murder Cuidad Juárez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, Charles Bowden has been sounding an alarm about the rapacious appetites of human beings and the devastation we inflict on the natural world we arrogantly claim to possess. His own corner of the world, the desert borderlands between the United States and Mexico, is Bowden's prime focus, and through books, magazine articles, and newspaper journalism he has written eloquently about key issues roiling the border―drug-related violence that is shredding civil society, illegal immigration and its toll on human lives and the environment, destruction of fragile ecosystems as cities sprawl across the desert and suck up the limited supplies of water. This anthology gathers the best and most representative writing from Charles Bowden's entire career. It includes excerpts from his major books―Killing the Hidden Waters, Blue Desert, Memories of the Future, Blood Orchid,Blues for Cannibals, A Shadow in the City, Inferno, Exodus, and Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing―as well as articles that appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Mother Jones, and other publications. Imbued with Bowden's distinctive rhythm and lyrical prose, these pieces also document his journey of exploration―a journey guided, in large part, by the question posed in Some of the Dead Are Still "How do we live a moral life in a culture of death?" This is no metaphor; Bowden is referring to the people, history, animals, and ecosystems that are being extinguished in the onslaught of twenty-first-century culture. The perfect introduction to his work, The Charles Bowden Reader is also essential for those who know him well and want to see the whole panorama of his passionate, intense writing.
311 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2010
7 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Charles Bowden
67 books185 followersCharles 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 ).
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 ).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 3, 2012
Chuck Bowden is from my home town. I met him at a couple of parties back when I was in high school. He comes across as an unassuming guy, but the minute he opens his mouth any impression that you might be dealing with a spaced-out hippie is immediately and forever disappeared. His voice is of a man who has no time for bullshit and enough experience to spot it right off the bat (as a teenager I fared poorly in conversation with him, being 85% full of shit). You may have heard his border essays on This American Life or other NPR programs, and I would kill for an audiobook of this collection because his diction and delivery are amazing in themselves. The prose stands alone, and reading these essays will make you think about shit you never noticed, notice things that you thought you knew about and even make you consider changing the way you go about your business. I can't recommend this highly enough.
March 12, 2016
This is the best of Chuck. When whittled down to its essence as it is here, his writing is absolutely visceral. He is as no bullshit as it gets. He is gone. He captures the writhing and death of a world we think we know. He does not wince or look away. He helps you accept it. When the last of this breed of writer is gone we won't remember. There won't be bone and blood or sand and thorn or even neon. Just distraction.
October 21, 2019
I was a bit disappointed in this book because I thought the writing would be more engaging, but after reading quite a few of his stories it seems like he just had a template he wrote them from. I guess you have to do that if you are writing for news publication, but it doesn't make the best collection.
January 4, 2020
This book is certainly not for everyone - the material can be quite emotionally challenging, but it's one of the best books I've ever read. Not many authors were willing to accurately portray what is going on in our Borderlands, but Charles was.
February 13, 2024
A frequently brilliant and enthralling collection of writings that sear and soar in equal measure.
October 25, 2015
One complaint: not enough! But it has told me which books to find next.
February 9, 2020
This is a great collection of the best of Bowden. As the editorial note says, material comes from several of his books — Killing the Hidden Waters, Blue Desert, Desierto: Memories of the Future, Blood Orchid, Blues for Cannibals, A Shadow in the City, Inferno, Exodus, and Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing — and a number of magazine articles. I've read Blue Desert more than once and read Desierto and his writing for High Country News and elsewhere.
One of the best pieces for me was "Snaketime." His description of a life of daily silent intercourse with a blacktail rattler, along with tagalongs with a rattlesnake biologist friend, invites the reader to a new perspective on an animal that many humans loathe with fear and revulsion. As such, it's probably a symbol for Bowden's writing as a whole — shove fear, loathing and revulsion forward and challenge the reader to think, and feel, anew.
That said, there are errors about animals in the book. Claims that animals besides humans don't engage in war? Perhaps out of date at the time of this particular essay; definitely out of date later. Chimps have intertribal warfare, for example.
Similar on blacktail rattlesnakes. The idea that ethics says we should never consider animals as more than forms or whatever? Bowden could have read Peter Singer before he died, or even someone less radically utilitarian on animal rights and realized his "ethics" claim was at minimum, painting with a broad brush and at maximum a straw man. But, it's set within a larger, beautiful peace about living "snaketime," his summer of something personally kind of like Australian dreamtime.
I get where he was coming from. It's kind of like Mark Twain in "Mysterious Stranger," challenging people for elevating humans above animals for having this "moral sense." But, as Twain was saying human were no better than animals, I think Bowden was taking it too far on the warfare issue; we're not worse, either.
Disagreements with Bowden's thoughts would be fine. I'd still 5-star the book with just that at issue.
But, the editors get it dropped a star. They offer no explanation about what drove their division into five sections. Either give an explanation or don't make any such division.
That said, on a sidebar? It IS interesting that many of the pieces have Bowden talking about his dad's drinking near the end. Was he trying to tell us something about the "why" of his own well-known drinking history?
And, was long-time girlfriend Mary Martha Miles, the primary editor, trying to tell us something with these precise choices?
One of the best pieces for me was "Snaketime." His description of a life of daily silent intercourse with a blacktail rattler, along with tagalongs with a rattlesnake biologist friend, invites the reader to a new perspective on an animal that many humans loathe with fear and revulsion. As such, it's probably a symbol for Bowden's writing as a whole — shove fear, loathing and revulsion forward and challenge the reader to think, and feel, anew.
That said, there are errors about animals in the book. Claims that animals besides humans don't engage in war? Perhaps out of date at the time of this particular essay; definitely out of date later. Chimps have intertribal warfare, for example.
Similar on blacktail rattlesnakes. The idea that ethics says we should never consider animals as more than forms or whatever? Bowden could have read Peter Singer before he died, or even someone less radically utilitarian on animal rights and realized his "ethics" claim was at minimum, painting with a broad brush and at maximum a straw man. But, it's set within a larger, beautiful peace about living "snaketime," his summer of something personally kind of like Australian dreamtime.
I get where he was coming from. It's kind of like Mark Twain in "Mysterious Stranger," challenging people for elevating humans above animals for having this "moral sense." But, as Twain was saying human were no better than animals, I think Bowden was taking it too far on the warfare issue; we're not worse, either.
Disagreements with Bowden's thoughts would be fine. I'd still 5-star the book with just that at issue.
But, the editors get it dropped a star. They offer no explanation about what drove their division into five sections. Either give an explanation or don't make any such division.
That said, on a sidebar? It IS interesting that many of the pieces have Bowden talking about his dad's drinking near the end. Was he trying to tell us something about the "why" of his own well-known drinking history?
And, was long-time girlfriend Mary Martha Miles, the primary editor, trying to tell us something with these precise choices?
May 5, 2017
Diverse read with some very topical pieces on the American-Mexico border that seem even more relevant today. It would be interesting to hear his take on the current situation...
"Imagine that [the problem] it goes deeper, right to the core of what we call our civilization and that no one outside of ourselves can affect real change, that our civilization, our governments are sick and that we are mentally ill and spiritually dead and that all our issues and crises are symptoms of this deeper sickness."
Truer words haven't been written.
"Imagine that [the problem] it goes deeper, right to the core of what we call our civilization and that no one outside of ourselves can affect real change, that our civilization, our governments are sick and that we are mentally ill and spiritually dead and that all our issues and crises are symptoms of this deeper sickness."
Truer words haven't been written.
April 25, 2020
I admire this man's willingness to go the center of evil and crazy to bring back such extraordinary stories. The is a sampler of his work over the years so his style ranges between gonzo journalism and solid, gut-punching stories
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews