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Charles Bowden
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The Red Caddy: Into the Unknown with Edward Abbey Kindle Edition

by Charles Bowden (Author), Luis Alberto Urrea (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 68 ratings
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The author of Blood Orchid and Blue Desert presents a biography on his friend, the writer and environmentalist, Edward Abbey.

A passionate advocate for preserving wilderness and fighting the bureaucratic and business forces that would destroy it, Edward Abbey (1927–1989) wrote fierce, polemical books such as Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang that continue to inspire environmental activists. In this eloquent memoir, his friend and fellow desert rat Charles Bowden reflects on Abbey the man and the writer, offering up thought-provoking, contrarian views of the writing life, literary reputations, and the perverse need of critics to sum up “what he really meant and whether any of it was truly up to snuff.”

The Red Caddy is the first literary biography of Abbey in a generation. Refusing to turn him into a desert guru, Bowden instead recalls the wild man in a red Cadillac convertible for whom liberty was life. He describes how Desert Solitaire paradoxically “launched thousands of maniacs into the empty ground” that Abbey wanted to protect, while sealing his literary reputation and overshadowing the novels that Abbey considered his best books. Bowden also skewers the cottage industry that has grown up around Abbey’s writing, smoothing off its rougher (racist, sexist) edges while seeking “anecdotes, little intimacies . . . pieces of the True Beer Can or True Old Pickup Truck.” Asserting that the real essence of Abbey will always remain unknown and unknowable, The Red Caddy still catches gleams of “the fire that from time to time causes a life to become a conflagration.”

“An unflinchingly honest writer addresses the death of his friend and kindred spirit Edward Abbey. . . . This belated publication should not only send readers back to Abbey, but also back to Bowden’s work. A memoir about an American original by an American original, a literary journalist who merits more than a regional readership.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Bowden, a journalist and author who died in 2014, knew Abbey better than most, perhaps, and attempts to paint a picture of the southwestern iconoclast in The Red Caddy. Discovered on his computer after his death, it’s a fascinating artifact that’s by turns charming and maddening—just like Abbey himself.” —NPR

“With its elegant prose and uncompromising vision, this is vintage Bowden.” —Arizona Daily Star,Southwest Books of the Year
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  1. Print length
    120 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    University of Texas Press
  5. Publication date
    April 25, 2018
  6. File size
    986 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The mind of Bowden, and Abbey within it, make for a compelling source of vision and wisdom...honest, biting." (Southwestern American Literature 2019-01-01)

"An unflinchingly honest writer addresses the death of his friend and kindred spirit Edward Abbey . . . Abbey lives within these pages, which Bowden wrote in 1994, shortly after the conference on Abbey. This belated publication should not only send readers back to Abbey, but also back to Bowden's work. A memoir about an American original by an American original, a literary journalist who merits more than a regional readership." (Kirkus 2018-02-06)

"Bowden, a journalist and author who died in 2014, knew Abbey better than most, perhaps, and attempts to paint a picture of the southwestern iconoclast in The Red Caddy. Discovered on his computer after his death, it's a fascinating artifact that's by turns charming and maddening — just like Abbey himself." (NPR 2018-04-28)

"[Bowden and Abbey] were kindred spirits—desert rats who wrote with beauty and power, and curmudgeons who tended to view our current state of humanity as spiraling the sink. Bowden looked up to Abbey, but he didn’t let that get in the way of telling readers how his friend Abbey was, like all of us, a jumble of contradictions. The gruff anarchist had a delicate ego and he could be childlike in his spite. In Abbey’s later years, the avowed environmentalist zoomed the desert in a gas-guzzling red Cadillac and saw little wrong with this pleasure. Bowden warns about turning the dead into saints, but he also can’t deny that Abbey’s spirit lives on." (Outside 2018-06-01)

"With its elegant prose and uncompromising vision, this is vintage Bowden." (Arizona Daily Star, Southwest Books of the Year)

About the Author

Author of many acclaimed books about the American Southwest and US-Mexico border issues, Charles Bowden (1945–2014) was a contributing editor for GQ, Harper’s, Esquire, and Mother Jones and also wrote for the New York Times Book Review, High Country News, and Aperture. His honors included a PEN First Amendment Award, Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, and the Sidney Hillman Award for outstanding journalism that fosters social and economic justice. He wrote The Red Caddy in 1994.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B076X4JXHM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Texas Press (April 25, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 25, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 986 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 120 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 68 ratings

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Charles Bowden

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
68 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Cactus Ed
5.0 out of 5 stars Bowden on Abbey - it doesn't get any better than this!
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2019
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I will admit, right off the bat, that I have been a big fan of both Edward Abbey and Charles Bowden for many years. Also: it was Abbey who led me to Bowden in the first place. Bowden and Abbey were fired by the same passions; the difference between them being the angle of attack. Chuck went more for the direct hit, while Ed's writing came across more as a glancing shot of the bow. Both men were brilliant writers; their books line my bookshelves here in the Pacific Northwest, far ( but not too far ) from the deserts they called home.
Ed Abbey died almost 30 years ago; Bowden wrote this book five years later, but it was not published until now. I don't know why the delay, but it doesn't matter because I think it's just great to have something new about Ed Abbey after all this time.
My only complaint about Red Caddy is that it is too damn short. But it will have to do. And it is wonderful reading.
I am one of those people who had a chance to buy Ed's fabled Caddy about ten years ago. I probably would have, because I am that kind of a person. But, alas, the famous car was indeed a great behemoth and was too wide to fit in my garage. ( No way I'd own the thing and then let it sit outside in the rain! ) I will have to be satisfied with the several autographed books and a few other things connected to Ed that I own. Still, it would be pretty cool to have that Caddy.
One slight criticism of the book: on the cover is a picture of Ed driving a red Buick, not the Caddy. The same one Ed drove around Arches in that famous video we've all seen on the internet. Why not a picture of Ed in the actual Caddy?? Maybe none exists.
Well, somebody now owns the Caddy and I hope they treat it well.
RIP to Ed and Chuck. Thanks for all the great writing fellas!
6 people found this helpful
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Rita Robinson
4.0 out of 5 stars A Writer writing about another Writer
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2018
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I learned about Edward Abbey from a fellow writer, which is an interesting point of view. Sometimes I felt as if Bowden was jealous of Abbey and was too caught up in the disease of alcoholism.
One person found this helpful
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Lawn Jockey
5.0 out of 5 stars there is more to living life than being a happy slave. Life is short and none of us ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2018
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I must admit that I was only semi-conscious when I read the book. I had just finished a 29 hour Provigil fueled dash from Eastern Tennessee to Phoenix. The Amazon box was waiting for me when I arrived. I started reading it immediately as I do with any book that comes out about Abbey. I have been doing this for decades. Bowden hit it as close to perfection as anyone has. Some people get it, there is more to living life than being a happy slave. Life is short and none of us know just how long the string will turn out to be. As I think Abbey was, I am allergic to boot licking, I have the terrible habit of saying what I really think and I detest government in all its forms. Bowden covered all the bases and even hit on the cult following Abbey now has in a not all that favorable manner.
One person found this helpful
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James W. Clarke, author of Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic TerroristsJames W. Clarke, author of The Lineaments of Wrath: Race, Violent Crime and American Culture
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, unsentimental reminiscences of one talented writer about another.
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019
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Let me say first that the late Chuck Bowden was a friend who liked Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison, a book I wrote. That's how we met. Having said that, let me add that if he hadn't liked it, he would have said so. Chuck was perhaps the most honest, blunt, and interesting person to write about the desert Southwest I have read. Right there with Ed Abbey, his friend. That's what makes these thoughtful, sometimes rambling, unsentimental reminiscences about Abbey so touching. I think Abbey probably would have liked it and smiled while reading it. But he wouldn't have told Chuck that.
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mokami
3.0 out of 5 stars A good book --with one totally fabricated story
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2020
On page 54, Bowden claims that Abbey wrote an article about himself and published it in a "skin magazine" under the pseudonym Morton Kamins. Since that is my name, and since I actually wrote that profile, I can assert unequivocally that Bowden's claim is false. I'd sure love to know how he came to believe it, though.
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Ol' Buck
5.0 out of 5 stars If you love Cactus Ed....
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2021
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....You'll love Charles Bowden.

What a great little book. Bowden doesn't hold back criticizing Ed where it counts, but you can also tell that he thinks the world of the guy. The book captures that moment in time in the years immediately following Ed's death in 1989.

This book led me to many others in the Bowden canon.
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a desert rat
4.0 out of 5 stars Good for Ed Abbey fans
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2020
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A bit pricey for a short read.
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Anil Godavarthy
5.0 out of 5 stars Uncovering Abbey the man, not the myth...
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019
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Unsentimental, crisp, and thoughtful portrait of Abbey. On each line, you can sense a lingering pain Bowden feels for Abbey's loss and as a reader, you feel it too...
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